The old jailers used to sigh: "You're hopelessly spoiled. Now, twenty years ago . . . " But we too were nothing like the rabbits who died without a murmur. We had grasped the great truth that it was not rifles, not tanks, and not atom bombs that created power, nor upon them that power rested. Power depended upon public obedience, upon a willingness to submit. Therefore each individual who refused to submit to force reduced that force by one two-hundred-and-fifty-millionth of its sum. We had been schooled by our participation in the civil rights movement, we had received an excellent education in the camps, and we knew of the implacable force of one man's refusal to submit. The authorities knew it, too. They had long since abandoned any idea of basing their calculations on Communist dogma. They no longer demanded of the people a belief in the radiant future -- all they needed was submission. [or] at least a willingness to compromise.

--Vladimir Bukovsky (1942-2019), To Build a Castle, p. 34