Sunday thought: Confronting tyranny

Seven things we’ve learned

Friends,

It’s getting worse.

Trump’s regime forces late-night comedians off the air. He threatens to take away broadcast licenses of networks whose TV personalities criticize him. Demands that the Attorney General prosecute his enemies. Sues The New York Times for criticizing him. Bombs boats in international waters. Occupies more cities. Accuses the left but not the right of political violence. Targets “liberal” organizations. Targets (and sometimes disappears) people who look Latino. Allows Putin and Netanyahu to do their worst. And so on.

If you are feeling frightened or disoriented, you have every reason.

Yet we have learned several lessons about how to deal with this tyrant, and we must practice them.

First, it is not possible to appease him. As Columbia University, several big law firms, and media companies such as ABC and CBS have shown, seeking to appease him only further encourages his tyranny.

It is better to fight and litigate than to settle.

Second, it’s hard to stand up to him separately, since every university, law firm, media company, and other target of Trump’s wrath is competing with every other for students, consumers, clients, or advertisers. Which is why it’s important for us to join together to create a united front.

Harvard is doing a good job confronting the regime but would do better if it acted as umbrella for all of higher education — litigating against the regime as a whole and speaking with one voice against its incursions on academic freedom and free speech.

Every tyrant in history has sought to divide and conquer. It’s one of Trump’s major ploys. He wants to attack institutions individually so they don’t join together. He also seeks to divide America — by politics, ethnicity, race, religion, region, sexual orientation and preference — so that we’re fragmented and angry with each other.

The third lesson is that confronting a tyrant requires courage. Large profit-driven corporations like ABC and CBS have none. Columbia and several other universities, as well as the law firms that surrendered to Trump, have shown little.

But The New York Times and Wall Street Journal have displayed backbone, as has Harvard. And hundreds of thousands of you have shown courage by making good trouble at Republican town halls and participating in peaceful demonstrations.

Courage can be contagious. It is easier to be courageous if others are courageous, which is why solidarity is essential. Demonstrations show us we’re not alone — that we’re part of a broad movement to take back our democracy. (Mark your calendars for the next No Kings protests, on October 18.)

A fourth lesson: Confronting tyranny is an ongoing effort. It requires tenacity. The oppression we’re experiencing will not end soon. Which is why it’s important to pace ourselves, maintain our strength, and not get burnt out.

Fifth, confronting tyranny requires that we act in small ways against it as well as large. We must correct lies when we hear them coming from anywhere, even members of our family. We cannot tolerate bigotry, from anyone. We have to push our elected representatives — as well as the organizations that employ us and the institutions in which we participate — to fight back.

Sixth, we must look for opportunities to celebrate even small wins and find ways to maintain our hopefulness. Tyrants want those whom they oppress to lose hope so the tyrants can take over all facets of society. We must not ever lose hope.

Finally, the best antidote to feelings of panic, helplessness, and stress is activism. The more we speak up, write our members of Congress, push the leaders of our companies and universities to take strong stands, organize locally, participate in demonstrations, boycott companies that are surrendering to the tyrant (such as canceling our Disney+ subscriptions), and protect the most vulnerable among us — the better we feel and the stronger we become.

My friends, these are among the hardest times most of us have ever experienced. I understand the stress you feel. I share it. But please do not despair. Do not feel helpless. Channel your outrage, anger, and sadness into action.

It is up to us to preserve democracy and protect social justice. Our predecessors in this struggle — generations who have sacrificed for these values — demand it. Our children and grandchildren deserve it.