by the time that AS was published, the gulag system and tyranny were in place for how many decades...five? And how many innocents were tortured and murdered in that fifty odd years. Millions! And even more after piblication. I’d say that was a bit late! The intent today is to prevent the disaster that AS wrote about after the fact and to not have millions of Americans suffer the same fate by acting early. AS did great work, but the real efforts to prevent tyranny should have been done decades earlier. Do you recall AS’s qoute about how their hearts burned that they had not acted violently toward the secret police each time they knocked on the door of an apt and behind it weren’t men armed with shovels, axes etc. and that they should have instilled fear in the secret police that each night they went to do the round ups they never knew if they’d live to see their family in the morning. AS was not as passive as your post implies! *this sent from phone, so can’t quote AS exactly. maybe another freeper can help*
thankfully, we are not at soviet tyranny today and such actions are not necessary here. however, in the USSR...scary stuff there and for those souls