Recent history is replete with alarming examples of dictators and would be dictators who refuse to recognize when their time has run out. But for the past twenty years their blatant political chicanery has been met with a potent new force: the massed voices of ordinary people who refuse to be cowed.
近代史上到处是令人惊惧的独裁者，以及不愿承认自己的辉煌已经结束的潜在独裁者。然而，过去二十年来，他们明目张胆的政治欺骗遭到了一股有力的新生力量的抵抗：那些不愿在恐吓面前屈服的普通人联合起来发出的声音。从1986年菲律宾推倒费迪南德·马科斯的“人民权力”革命，到1991年8月叶利钦反抗针对戈尔巴乔夫的政变阴谋，再到近年来的玫瑰革命、橙色革命和雪杉革命，只要有足够的人站出来，独裁者只能被迫承认失败。