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

Professional ethics must guide us precisely when we are told that the situation is exceptional (no “just following orders). In Nazi Germany if lawyers had followed the norm of no execution w/o trial, if doctors had refused to do surgery w/o consent, if bureaucrats had refused to handle paperwork involving murder, then it would have been much harder for the regime to carry out the atrocities it’s remembered for.

REMEMBER PROFESSIONAL ETHICS
When political leaders set a negative example, professional commitments to just practice become more important. It is hard to subvert a rule-of-law state without lawyers or hold a show trial without judges (these professionals can provide a checking force). Authoritarians need obedient civil servants, and concentration camp directors seek businessmen interested in cheap labor.

In the politics of the everyday, our words & gestures (or absence) count. These minor choices are a kind of vote. A greengrocer that posts the communist “Workers of the World, unite!” sign in his window doesn’t actually endorse the content, he does it to avoid hassle from authorities. When everyone else follows the same logic, the public sphere is covered with signs of loyalty & resistance becomes unthinkable.

TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE FACE OF THE WORLD.
The symbols of today enable the reality of tomorrow. Notice the swastikas and the other signs of hate. Do not look away, and do not get used to them. Remove them yourself and set an example for others to do so.

BEWARE THE ONE-PARTY STATE
The [dangerous] parties that remade states and suppressed rivals were not omnipotent from the start. They exploited a historic moment to make political life impossible for their opponents. So support the multi-party system and defend the rules of democratic elections. Vote in local and state elections while you can. Consider running for office.

A leading newspaper for German Jews published this editorial on 2/2/1933:
“We do not subscribe to the view that Mr. Hitler & his friends…will implement the proposals circulating in (Nazi newspapers); they will not suddenly deprive German Jews of their constitutional rights, nor enclose them in ghettos… because a number of crucial factors hold powers in check…”

DEFEND INSTITUTIONS
It is institutions that help preserve decency; they need our help as well. Do not speak of “our institutions” unless you make them yours by acting on their behalf. Institutions do not protect themselves. They fall one after the other unless each is defended from the beginning. So chose an institution you care about (a court, a newspaper, a law, a labor union) & take its side.

Anticipatory Obedience: After Hitler annexed Austria, Austrian citizens looked on in interest as Austrian Nazis captured local Jews. In 1941, when Germany invaded the Soviet Union, the SS took the initiative to devise the methods of mass killing without orders to do so. They guessed what their superiors wanted and demonstrated what was possible. It was far more than Hitler had thought.

DO NOT OBEY IN ADVANCE.
Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In these times, individuals think ahead to what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do.

We might be tempted to think that our Democratic heritage automatically protects us from such threats; this is a misguided reflex.
Americans today are no wiser than Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism & communism in the 20th Century. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience. Now is a good time to do so.