A New Yorker article 
, April 12, 2025
> The key to challenging authoritarian regimes, Stephan said, is for citizens to decline to participate in immoral and illegal acts. [She] has a phrase for this mind-set: “I think of it as collective stubbornness,” she said.
> Many dissidents we spoke to said that, amid prolonged and cascading political crises, establishing a political home for yourself is a necessary ingredient for nurturing non-coöperation. Think of this as the equivalent of participation in a faith community that meets to worship—a regular practice to guard against loneliness and despair [...]
> The Soviet dissidents understood their work as a struggle to uphold the laws and rights that were enshrined in the Soviet constitution, not as a fight against a regime. [...] “I call it radical civil obedience.”
> Soviet [...] activists continued writing their books, making their art, and publishing their newsletters. And, when they gathered, they raised their glasses in the traditional toast: “To the success of our hopeless cause.” > > In 1989, the Berlin Wall came down. ♦