On Freedom

by Timothy Snyder

A big lie is more than the absence of truth and the presence of deception. It has the power to shape how minds and therefore societies work. It turns people away from others’ Leib and the little truths around them. It provides an interpretive scheme for all facts and values, allowing us to live without the effort of declaring and accommodating. When a lie is big enough, it confirms the power of the Leader, who becomes the arbiter of reality. A big lie enters into institutions, magnifying its own force. It creates enemies, those who do not wish to follow the new article of spontaneous faith, or those who are too slow to do so. A big lie can bring down a whole country. The twentieth century should have been Germany’s century, but Germans got caught in a story. The twenty-first century could be America’s, but Americans…