In the wake of the 2016 election, historian Timothy Snyder reminded us with his first rule for surviving authoritarianism: “1. Do not obey in advance.”
I would add to that “do not surrender in advance.” Do not surrender prematurely. Do not surrender maturely, for that matter. Do not surrender if there is any other option, and maybe don’t surrender then, either.
Snyder continues, “ Much of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then start to do it without being asked. You’ve already done this, haven’t you? Stop. Anticipatory obedience teaches authorities what is possible and accelerates unfreedom.”
I have said, “Your opponents would love you to believe that it’s hopeless, that you have no power, that there’s no reason to act, that you can’t win. Hope is a gift you don’t have to surrender, a power you don’t have to throw away.”
So it’s interesting to see people deciding they’ve lost an election that has yet to begin rather than figuring out how to fight like hell for it. You would never see this kind of public defeatism from the right, and while they’re bad at being human beings, they’re good at strategy. I wish we didn’t so often seem like the opposite.
Too, our words, our stories, creates our reality. The New York Times pretending to report and comment on Biden’s age made a much bigger issue of Biden’s age just like they cooked up Clinton’s emails into a faux-issue that infiltrated the conversation. You all saying that the election is already lost are helping lose it. This doesn’t mean that there is no trouble, and no need for change. It just means those are not grounds for surrender.
