The tyrant’s playbook…

Straight out of every dictator’s playbook:

• Cause people to see their neighbors as different.
• Cause people to distrust, and ultimately to hate, their neighbors.
• Cause people to destroy their neighbors.

Often, people don’t need much urging to play along. Good people stand by and say nothing. Society unravels. Devastation ensues. With time, most people forget it even happened. The cycle repeats.

The sins of genocide are never fully expiated. Our survival as a species rests on our ability to resist the temptation to follow the tyrant’s sophistry.