On Tyranny is a short, coffee-table book packed so dense with so much useful and practical information that it eludes a super summary. So like Show Your Work, I’ll be covering the best parts individually here as snippets.

The book looks at simple, real-world ways we can all protect democracy and fight tyranny.

We Americans get a chance to collectively take pride in our country every year on July 4. Serendipitously placed in the middle of summer, we get to enjoy endless grill & chill opportunities, pool parties, hot dog eating contests, even dance parties. And of course, fireworks. 🇺🇸🌭🎆

I’m not sure how people in most other countries celebrate their national identities, but I am grateful that we have decided to celebrate as a fun, collective national party rather than, say, a military parade or a grim political speech.

Those military parades and political speeches are signs of nationalism, which is, “endlessly brooding on power, victory, defeat, revenge”, according to On Tyranny.

Sadly, a some of this type of nationalism is familiar to us Americans as well.

In contrast to this bitter nationalism, it is good and helpful to be a patriot, because patriots brings out our best selves based on real, universal values.

A patriot… wants the nation to live up to its ideals, which means asking us to be our best selves.

A patriot must be concerned with the real world, which is the only place where his country can be loved and sustained.

A patriot has universal values, standards by which he judges his nation, always wishing it well—and wishing that it would do better.

So go ahead, be a patriot. We’ll all be better off for it. ✌️