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Chapter 13
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in On Tyranny, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Collapse of American Democracy
Tyranny and the Consolidation of Power
Political Action and Civic Responsibility
History and Memory
Summary
Analysis
Snyder suggests that people should be careful about what they put on the internet. Hannah Arendt defined “totalitarianism” as “the erasure of the difference between private and public life,” meaning that citizens cannot control what others know about them. But now, electronic privacy violations are normal, which gives governments and corporations immense power over people. In the 2016 presidential campaign, the media dishonestly manipulated politics and erased digital privacy by taking emails out of context and turning them into political news.
It is important to differentiate between totalitarianism and mere authoritarianism—in which a government is highly centralized and powerful, but does not try to control every aspect of citizens’ lives and the workings of society. Arendt’s definition of totalitarianism emphasizes the fact that totalitarian governments gradually increase their power by limiting citizens’ ability to do anything—including thinking and speaking—without somehow involving the government. This includes psychological tactics, like persuading people to be suspicious of one another, building reverence for a leader, and misusing words until their meaning is forever distorted.
Themes
Totalitarians manipulate people’s love for secrets in order to push conspiracy theories, but when people accept these theories, they help destroy democracy. People should not only protect their own privacy but also fight for collective privacy protections and laws.
Snyder shows that citizens participate in this process of expanding psychological control when they look for secret conspiracies, because they are helping the government justify its desire to make private lives public, even though their conspiracy theories are not backed by any solid evidence. While accessing people’s personal data may be necessary in select cases—like corruption inquiries or criminal investigations—this does not mean that corporations or the government should gain an absolute right to do so, whenever they want. Even though the violation of citizens’ electronic privacy has not led to restrictions on most people’s freedoms yet in the United States, Snyder worries that it sets a dangerous precedent, which would allow a repressive government to easily enact such restrictions.
Themes
