Fascism says what you and I experience as facts or what reporters experience as facts are irrelevant. All that matters are impressions and emotions and myths.
Timothy D. SnyderRead
The 20th century shows that the form of government that we take for granted, a constitutional democratic republic with checks and balances and a rule of law - that form of government is usually temporary.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Governments that we believe to be stable and enduring can be transient and fragile.
Timothy D. Snyder's quote highlights the precariousness of democratic institutions, suggesting that what may seem like a permanent and stable government structure—specifically a constitutional democratic republic—can actually be temporary. It serves as a cautionary reminder of the need for vigilance and active participation in governance to maintain the rule of law and prevent the decline of democracy.
Themes
GovernmentDemocracyTemporaryRule Of LawRepublic
In practice
Example use cases
In a political debate about the importance of safeguarding democratic institutions.
More from Timothy D. Snyder
All quotes →Defend an institution. Follow the courts or the media, or a court or a newspaper. Do not speak of 'our institutions' unless you are making them yours by acting on their behalf. Institutions don't protect themselves. They go down like dominoes unless each is defended from the beginning.
Timothy D. SnyderRead
Brittle masculinity, in the right setting, becomes political atrocity. Strength brings problems; weakness brings others, but weakness posing as strength is the most dangerous of all.
Timothy D. SnyderRead
If we don't have access to facts, we can't trust each other. Without trust, there's no law. Without law, there's no democracy.
Timothy D. SnyderRead
Totalitarianism is not about some state that appears out of nowhere and suddenly is all-powerful. There can't be any such thing. Totalitarianism starts when the difference between your public life and your private life is effaced.
Timothy D. SnyderRead
Most Americans are exceptionalists; we think we live outside of history.
Timothy D. SnyderRead
Similar quotes
The tank, the B-52, the fighter-bomber, the state-controlled police and military are the weapons of dictatorship. The rifle is the weapon of democracy. Not for nothing was the revolver called an "equalizer."
Edward AbbeyRead
None of this is fair to you. And should it continue, it will make it more difficult to keep attracting the kind of driven, patriotic, idealist Americans to public service that our citizens deserved and that our system of self-government demands.
Barack ObamaRead
Like the effect of advertising upon the customer, the methods of political propaganda tend to increase the feeling of insignificance of the individual voter.
Erich FrommRead
You will find that the State is the kind of organization which, though it does big things badly, does small things badly, too.
John Kenneth GalbraithRead
This aesthetic quality, then, is what politics is all about. It's authenticity that separates winners from losers, good politics from bad, and he-man leader-types from consultant-directed puppet-boys.
Thomas FrankRead
If you're worried about the deficit, pay attention to the fact that it's almost all attributable to military spending and the totally dysfunctional health program.
Noam ChomskyRead