The Problem is Us: Or Why You Should Start a Book Club This Summer

Discussing "On Tyranny" by Timothy Snyder

A lot is going on in my life personally, and in the world generally, that is hard. We own a small business that designs and builds physical things in the United States. It’s called Keating Woodworks. We moved our manufacturing from our home studio to a bigger shop this month. In a bid for sympathy I told my kids that we moved the equivalent of Free Willy six times with all the attendant problem solving such a feat entails. They still complained about what I made for dinner.

When you’re exhausted and overwhelmed it’s easy to feel isolated and to tell yourself nobody cares about what you care about. When reading the news feels like drinking from a fire hose, the last thing you want to do is see people, because you know you’re not at your best. But I’ve learned that when I’m down I need to do the opposite of what I feel like doing, so I started a book club. Because of everything going on in the world we decided to read and discuss Timothy Snyder’s short book “On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the 20th Century.” I highly recommend it.

Did you know that more than two thirds of the world’s population now lives under authoritarian rule? This is according to the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA). Democratic erosion and backsliding has never been as high, globally, as in the last decade. Democracy isn’t perfect, you rarely get exactly what you want, but it does allow people to vote tyrants out. So that’s something.

Often, it feels like the end of liberalism is a problem that’s too big to solve, like AI or global warming. We have a President who calls half the country that didn’t vote for him “monsters” and “scum.” This is the level of dialogue.

Maybe this is what we wanted. Did we elect a demagogue because we wanted one? Or did a demagogue tell people whose jobs really had been offshored by NAFTA, who really were stressed about grocery prices, who really did feel like the world was changing too much too fast what they wanted to hear and then proceed to betray them by going after their healthcare, freedoms and all all the rest. Either way, our impatience, our anger, our fear of “the other” our inability to listen and compromise, our polarization, it all got us here. The good news is that we can change.

Insofar as we lost the ability to engage charitably with others, insofar as we checked all the way out, we’re part of the problem. Democracy is messy. It’s slow. It requires conversation and compromise. It takes forever to get things through congress or the courts. Rule by executive order or via police state is by contrast swift… but merciless. No time to check the evidence, he’s already been sent away to some hellhole half a world away.

Liberal democracy or even just healthy community requires people to have conversations across difference and work together towards common goals. We’ve become disconnected from our neighbors and communities. We’ve let our habits slip. We’ve gotten used to the being shouted at by people on the Internet (or in real life) committed to misunderstanding us and vice versa. We’ve taken for granted certain things, assumed they would always be there, but crises have a way of revealing our true selves and getting us back on track.

So last week I hosted a book club in my backyard. It felt like drinking an aperol spritz after months of plain water; bubbly and sweet. We discussed the first third of Timothy Snyder’s “On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century.” Until 2025 Snyder was a professor of history at Yale who specialized in 20th century European history (the Soviet Union and the Holocaust). He now teaches and lives in Canada. Make of that emigration what you will.

I like that he writes and speaks plainly, not in academic-ease. Snyder grew up Quaker and he sometimes describes what is happening in the US as “the new paganism.” The Judeo-Christian ethos of caring for the poor and vulnerable (as it says on the poem inscribed on the pedestal of Statue of Liberty “give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”) is being replaced by a the valorization of rich guys who seem empathy as a the greatest threat to Western civilization.

“On Tyranny” is a short read, worth reading on your own but even better with friends. Consider starting a book group. It’s important always, to have people with whom you can be yourself and speak your mind. Many of us are afraid to “speak” on social media. We don’t want to kick the hornets nest. We don’t want to lose clients or our jobs. This was true even under the past administration. It’s even truer today. Plus, on social media there’s no back and forth no tone of voice. It’s unpleasant. As a result the loudest least nuanced voices do most of the talking.

And for the first time in my life, some us are afraid of saying something critical of the state in print. After all, a Fulbright student at Tufts and a professor at Georgetown have been jailed for weeks and months for writing something online that the administration didn’t like. This is a clear violation of their First Amendment rights. These actions and others like them are intended to have a chilling effect on speech. One solution is small gatherings where people can speak freely without being recorded. These meet-ups also provide networks of support should harder times come.

Sometimes the grief I feel about all the norms being shattered just sits on my chest like a stone. I can feel lonely in a crowd because it’s taboo to talk about politics or religion in public. What a relief it was to sit around a table with other people concerned about what is happening. These were people from different political backgrounds who all signed up to discuss the history of tyranny and current threats to American style democracy. I felt lifted. Lighter.

Having friends is pointless, like having a hobby. It’s not necessary. Or is it? Over half of American adults are chronically lonely, and the health impacts of loneliness are akin to smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. The mind body connection is real. We need these kind of meet ups, especially when we don’t feel up to it. Nothing gets you out of a funk like doing something active. Friends of friends came to this book club. People I had never met before. That’s how your village expands.

Whatever you call the existential crisis that has hold of America right now, one thing almost certain to improve it is genuine community (not based on hating the same things but on loving the same things). Even knowing you could call someone if you needed to, is medicinal.

It was lovely to eat snacks and drink water and sit among my newly potted plants in the sunshine. It was edifying if sobering to discuss the “lessons of the 20th century.” I am already looking forward to the next one.

Here are some of the things people said that for whatever reason got lodged in my head and heart:

“Whenever you shave someone’s head and give them a number… you are trying to dehumanize them. To strip them of their humanity. That’s what concerns me, whenever we stop seeing people as people.”

“I remember a friend from Russia who told me they don’t have charities and nonprofits there. All the non-profits in Colorado are being hit with cuts. Kids in foster care, the services we give them are paid for by Medicaid but now we’re being told we can’t get them this or that service.”

“I think it’s important to show up locally. If they are closing a local library go fight for it. Locally we have the biggest impact with time and donations. That’s my experience.”

“We need to talk about the flags. I liked how Snyder said if you display a symbol of loyalty it should include rather than exclude. I see this as a problem on both sides. If you don’t have this or that flag you’re an enemy.”

“I think we need to understand that if a Republican administration disregards the Supreme Court and the Constitution a Democratic one will do the same. It’s bigger than this or that issue, it’s the precedent. If we say laws can just be disregarded the other side will do that as well.”

Start a book group. Meet outside so you don’t have to clean your house, or meet inside because it’s a nice excuse to clean your house! It’s not about what is said as much as it is about being together, starting a conversation and building resilience. Plus, half of all Americans didn’t read a single book last year, so pick a short one and change that.