Episode 12 | Ethics & PAramilitaries

I am amazed at how each chapter in On Tyranny coincides perfectly with the week's news. It almost makes me think Timothy Snyder was on to something!

This week, we talk about remembering our professional (and personal) ethics and being wary of paramilitaries. There are several instances of officials looking to the larger ethics that guide their professions, like lawyers and judges, instead of bowing to the whim of the administration. We uphold those as courageous acts. If we do not have a larger commitment to something beyond a personality, we will be swept up, wondering how things got so bad. We will find ourselves being governed by foolish tyrants who solicit armed support from those who do not uphold the ethics of their profession. ICE right now is being engaged as a type of paramilitary, carrying out arrests and deportations without due process. They are in violation of people’s legal rights. So the encouragement is to ground yourself and ask if you are in integrity with your personal and professional ethics to carry out justice, mercy, and love.

Thanks for listening! Send us good news. We live in a small corner of the world—let us know how your corner is resisting tyranny!

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1. On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder

2. https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/messages/urbi/documents/20250420-urbi-et-orbi-pasqua.html

3. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DI6vtjjOGGg/

4. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/26/us/wisconsin-judge-hannah-dugan-arrest.html