1. This is a thread on freedom, and how easy it is to lose. Over the past 2,000 years in Europe, there have been few periods and places of freedom. For much of the time we lived under highly oppressive tyrannies of various kinds, whether small or grand, local or imperial, secular or religious.🧵 2. These regimes were sustained by terror: extreme punishments for slight infractions; spectacular acts of public cruelty; torture and killing of those considered “disloyal” to the lord/bishop/king/emperor/pope. Belief in many cases was rigidly controlled: dissent or “heresy” often meant death. 3. Women in many places lived in a state of extreme bondage and oppression. For much of the time, men and women also lived in terror of warlordism: of new invading powers, which would overthrow the old order and assert the new with even greater displays of cruelty and violence. 4. Not only did most people, most of the time, enjoy almost no political freedom, but most also had very little economic freedom. They were forced to surrender much of their labour either directly (serfdom etc) or indirectly (tithes and taxes which delivered no benefits to them). 5. Effectively, people belonged to those who could wield terror and violence. Tyranny, terror and bondage are, I believe, the default state of centralised, hierarchical societies. The freedoms we enjoy today are highly contingent and unusual. 6. We need to lose these freedoms only once to revert to the default state of centralised, hierarchical societies. Eighty-five years ago, we very nearly did. Hitler promised a thousand-year reich, and – who knows? - that could have been a realistic outcome, had he won. 7. We were astonishingly lucky that: A. He foolishly attacked another centralised, hierarchical empire whose people lived in bondage, which was prepared to sacrifice millions to defeat him. B. He declared war on a very rich and powerful semi-democracy, which upheld certain ideals of freedom. 8. But it might not require Nazi terror for Europe to revert to default mode. We seem perfectly happy to vote or drift our way back to it. As the US might already have done. Once you vote for an autocrat, you might find it extremely hard to reverse the decision. 9. An autocratic ruler can quickly assert control, shutting down democratic institutions and competing poles of power, building an apparatus of state terror to crush dissent, controlling beliefs through the media, social media and other propaganda outlets. Every step makes the next one easier. 10. The freedoms we take for granted – political, economic, sexual, individual - were won through a combination of extraordinary struggle and extraordinary luck. There’s nothing “natural” or inevitable about them. They are in fact highly anomalous. And we won’t know what we’ve lost till it’s gone. 11. Regaining the freedom we’ve lost is much harder and less likely than defending the freedom we already possess. We must do all we can to stop governments with autocratic tendencies from winning elections and reasserting the old order. Lose it once, and it might be gone forever. 12. As always with these threads, I'm putting it out there in the hope that other people will improve, correct or refine this position, bring in new information or points I hadn't considered. So please don't hesitate to wade in. Thanks. The thread on one page: skywriter.blue
skywriter.blue