The quote in the headline comes from Rebecca Solnit’s Hope in the Dark. She echoes the first lesson Timothy Snyder presents in On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century: “Do not obey in advance.” Snyder warns that much of authoritarian power is freely surrendered. When enough people conform to perceived new norms without reflection, they unintentionally signal to those in power what is possible—potentially paving the way for even more extreme measures.

"Anticipatory obedience is a political tragedy. Perhaps rulers did not initially know that citizens were willing to compromise this value or that principle. Perhaps a new regime did not at first have the direct means of influencing citizens one way or another. After the German elections of 1932, which permitted Adolf Hitler to form a government, or the Czechoslovak elections of 1946, where communists were victorious, the next crucial step was anticipatory obedience. Because enough people in both cases voluntarily extended their services to the new leaders, Nazis and communists alike realized that they could move quickly toward a full regime change. The first heedless acts of conformity could not then be reversed."

BOOK EXCERPT: Resist Authoritarianism by Refusing to Obey in Advance