Deanna’s Reviews > On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century > Status Update

“A patriot by contrast, wants the nation to live up to its ideals, which means asking us to be our best selves. A patriot must be concerned with the real world, which is the only place where his country can be loved and sustained. A patriot has universal values, standards by which he judges his nation, always wishing it well - and wishing it would do better.” (114)

“A nationalist is not the same thing as a patriot. A nationalist encourages us to be our worst, and then tells us that we are the best. A nationalist, ‘although endlessly brooding on power, victory, defeat, revenge’ wrote Orwell, tends to be ‘uninterested in what happens in the real world.’” (113-114)

“When we repeat the same words and phrases that appear in the daily media, we accept the absence of a larger framework. To have such a framework requires more concepts, and having more concepts requires reading. So get the screens out of your room and surround yourself with books.” (62)

#8. Stand out. Someone has to. It is easy to follow along. It can feel strange to do or say something different. But without that unease, there is no freedom. Remember Rosa Parks. The moment you set an example, the spell of the status quo is broken, and others will follow. 51

“In the politics of the everyday, our words and gestures, or their absence, count very much.” (33)