Bodhipaksa reviewed Surviving Autocracy by Masha Gessen
A useful historical reminder, and diagnosis
4 stars
Gessen expanded a New York Review article, "Autocracy: Rules for Survival," into a very detailed account of the first three years of Trump's first term in office. She outlines the many ways in which Trump violated ethical, democratic, and constitutional norms, and the way the congress and the media were unable to adequately handle what was unfolding. The book was published before the Jan 6 insurrection, and so it's not a complete overview of Trump's crimes and misdemeanors, but because our minds are so easily overwhelmed by Trump's "flood the zone with shit" antics, we tend to forget what happened, and so it acts as a useful reminder.
Unfortunately Surviving Autocracy is less useful as a guide to, individually, surviving autocracy. And that's unfortunate, because now we're in Trump's second presidency and things are much worse. We now effectively have a dictator — a ruler who makes and interprets the …
Gessen expanded a New York Review article, "Autocracy: Rules for Survival," into a very detailed account of the first three years of Trump's first term in office. She outlines the many ways in which Trump violated ethical, democratic, and constitutional norms, and the way the congress and the media were unable to adequately handle what was unfolding. The book was published before the Jan 6 insurrection, and so it's not a complete overview of Trump's crimes and misdemeanors, but because our minds are so easily overwhelmed by Trump's "flood the zone with shit" antics, we tend to forget what happened, and so it acts as a useful reminder.
Unfortunately Surviving Autocracy is less useful as a guide to, individually, surviving autocracy. And that's unfortunate, because now we're in Trump's second presidency and things are much worse. We now effectively have a dictator — a ruler who makes and interprets the law himself (abnegating the judicial branch of government) and who sets and controls spending (making congress redundant), who establishes absolute loyalty through purges and intimidation, and who is threatening to mis-use the law to punish his enemies while freely committing crimes himself. We need more guidance on how we survive all that, and the book is lacking in that department.
Gessen eviscerates the mainstream media for its inability to name what's happening. Outlets like the NYT pride themselves on their lack of bias, but are then unable to call a lie a lie or a coup a coup. They thus normalize what's going on, and in doing so contribute to the problem of growing autocracy. Gessen suggests that reporters have to learn to report from a point of view rather than pretending they are impartial reporters. This is useful, but reading the book and its recommendations I was left feeling that all I was getting was a more informed picture of what's going wrong. And all I can do is to observe it all, helplessly.
Timothy Snyder's "On Tyranny" goes into less depth but is more of a practical guide, showing how we can indeed "Survive Autocracy." I'd recommend reading that instead.
