From the On Tyranny series by Timothy Snyder, Lesson #20 of twenty. This will be the final post of the series posted here every Monday for the last twenty weeks.  You can find them all on YouTube.  They are all short videos, no ads.  Click on the link for the twenty lessons in printable form.

Editor’s note: Today’s lesson is timely, the Monday after the opposition’s first national mass #handsoff action. Many friends who have not ever attended a protest or been politically active displayed courage this weekend by showing up.  They came out of their comfort zones to speak up and show up. He also explains why courageous acts will be different for everyone. There are cynics and doubters who want to say the protests won’t do any good, won’t change anything. Dr. Snyder discusses why that is not true. I bolded the text in the excerpt below that speaks to the point.

“Courage can take small forms. The important question is whether we choose to be as courageous as we can…In small ways or large the point is to be as courageous as you can…It’s also about the chances that the tyrants have to rule us take because if prospective tyrants, if the people who want to rule us, look out and see people who are willing to take small chances, willing to take risks, people who are being as courageous as you can, they are less likely to take risks. They’re less likely to do the things they need to do to seize power. So be as courageous as you can. It has to do with daily life but like so many of these other lessons it also has to do with the way things finally turn out.” – Timothy Snyder