Emergencies Symbol Analysis

Emergencies represent an opportunity for tyrants, allowing them to turn a democracy into an authoritarian state by seizing power and then never letting go. Whether real or manufactured, emergencies provide “one moment of shock [that] enables an eternity of submission” to the government, and citizens must anticipate these tactics in order to resist them as soon as they come to the fore. The most notorious example of such an emergency was the Reichstag fire in 1933: when the Reichstag (German Parliament) burned down, Hitler used the emergency to suspend civil rights and secure absolute dictatorial power, which he never gave up. If he had not capitalized on this emergency, it is doubtful that Hitler would have ever been able to orchestrate World War II and the Holocaust. Similarly, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin has repeatedly used manufactured terrorist attacks as a justification for stripping power from democratic institutions like regional governors and privately owned television stations. Accordingly, the emergency marks the regime’s shift from pretending to follow the playbook of democracy (by letting political opponents continue to have their rightful voice in government, weakening but not completely destroying institutions, and at least pretending to respect citizens’ human rights) to openly governing for its own sake and throwing all democratic principles out the window. In addition to representing the need for citizens to constantly remain vigilant and hold their governments accountable, then, the emergency also demonstrates how authoritarians invert the ordinary tools and obligations of government. As they claim to be serving the national welfare, they are really seizing power and pursuing personal gain at the expense of the citizenry.