If one is trapped in a circle of oppression and repression, whether it be by an outside force, or by dominant forces within a society, what would make you think you could rebel? I'm always surprised and impressed with groups, such as the people in Chile or other countries with terrible dictators, who manage to come together and form organizations of resistance. If you don't know any different than what you've always had though, where do these thoughts come from? Do you model off of other countries/groups of people? Or do these thoughts come of just yourself, like the Otpor group having the same models as Gene Sharp?

What reason has someone to dream of something they have never known?

I think of the boys at the orphanage where I spend my spring breaks and as much of my summer as I can. More often than not, they don't seem or express much dissatisfaction with their situation. When they first come, they cry at nights, and I've heard stories from other boys about listening to the boy above them crying in the dark of night. But after awhile, they say, they don't think about it anymore. Some of them say they have dreams of going to university, but know they will never go because they have no money. They give up on that and accept the fact that they will be merely subsistence farmers. And I waver between thinking it's a good thing that they can accept the likely reality of their futures, and distress that 10 year old boys have already given up hope for a better tomorrow. Which one is better? To dream about something they may never be and be disappointed, or never to dream at all?