In 1914, H.G. Wells published a book titled The World Set Free. The fictional story predicted a massive weapon that was more destructive than anything the world had ever seen. Wells described a war in 1956 with nuclear weapons, even though theories of atomic energy were many years away. The first atomic bomb was not detonated until 1945 at the Manhattan Project’s Trinity test site.

Wells’s fictional prediction of atomic weapons is as astonishing as it is sobering. He wrote, “humanity has been compared by one contemporary writer to a sleeper who handles matches in his sleep and wakes to find himself in flames.” 

I spend a great deal of time teaching students how to speak and write. We dwell on how to think and critique and ask questions. It’s amazing, though, how fragile and ephemeral speech is.  Especially when it’s threatened.

Watching Andor, season 2, is a lesson in how authoritarian regimes take power. For those who don’t know, Andor is a Star Wars spin-off that follows the character of Cassian Andor, tracing the rise of power of the Imperial Empire, and, the corresponding rise of the Rebellion in the galaxy. The Empire makes plans. They scheme and certainly use propaganda. But, as Imperial Supervisor Dedra points out, they also require the “right” amount of suspicion and push back from various worlds and cultures. This gives the Empire the excuse to stamp out opposition through a show of force.

It’s not a new tactic. It’s a very common and well-used maneuver. 

There’s a pivotal scene in the second season where a Senator decides to speak out about the Empire’s atrocities on the planet Ghorman. She knows that she will likely be silenced or killed for her words. In her speech to the Imperial Senate, she reminds her listeners of the power of truth. She is speaking of the narratives we write about events, about people, and about ideas. She ends her speech calling what the Empire describes as a “rebellion” on Ghorman to actually be a genocide. And she is promptly silenced and barely escapes with her life.  She says:

The distance between what is said and what is known to be true has become an abyss. Of all the things at risk, the loss of an objective reality is perhaps the most dangerous. The death of truth is the ultimate victory of evil. When truth leaves us, when we let it slip away, when it is ripped from our hands, we become vulnerable to the appetite of whatever monster screams the loudest.
This Chamber’s hold on the truth was finally lost on the Ghorman Plaza. What took place yesterday — WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY ON GHORMAN WAS UNPROVOKED GENOCIDE!

So often I think our words mean nothing. Why take a class and bother to learn to write speeches? Why learn how to speak eloquently or effectively? What is the value of words? When truth is being silenced, words matter. When people in power punish those who make jokes or speak criticism, words matter even more.  

History has seen the patterns of power play out over and over and over again. It’s never exactly identical because context always matters. But the patterns are very recognizable. Even fictional accounts like H.G. Wells’ book and Star Wars’ Andor are able to foresee a future when the same patterns are used to seize power

• Plan carefully. 
• Push your own narrative. 
• Make your opposition seem unpatriotic, weak, and needy. 
• Emphasize misinformation in favor of your own clean and uncomplicated narrative.
• Show that power in your hands is the * best * for everyone. 
• Stir up your opposition a little bit, but not too much. 
• Then silence and crush and opposition and discredit their efforts. 
• When you silence your opposition, make it neatly fit your clean narrative.  

Humans have a habit of playing with matches and finding out they have set a fire. Many parts of our world seem to be on fire. Some of it was accurately predicted, and some not. But valuing speech and criticism, open debates and civil discourse, along with the free exchange of ideas has always been the sign of a healthy society.