On Tyranny: The Threat Isn't Symmetric

I picked this up at the book store after having previously picked it up and put it down on a different visit.

It reminds me of the books that the right was talking about in the aftermath of the 2008 election, looking at the Rules for Radicals and The Road to Serfdom and totems that need to be held tightly to avoid the bad and turn the way to the good. I don’t know if we’re more politicized or not, but on this trip, I couldn’t help but think the Trump election had to be good for booksellers. Or maybe not. Perhaps most of these political books are more bought than read so as to claim allegiance to a tribe.

This book does show allegiance, but in a nice turn, it never directly addresses just what or whose tyranny we need to be on the lookout for, and how to avoid it, but it does just hover there ever so slightly. It is a small book both in terms of pages and the physical dimensions – making it a bit hard to hold in your hands but meaning that it is a quick read. It does feel timely, giving advice on twenty specific ways to avoid and be vigilant for and against. The hope is that we never have to use it, but the point is that tyranny creeps in but doesn’t announce itself. My only criticism is that it warns of oppression from the left and the right, but we know which side prompted him to write.