The people can just roll into a collective fetal position and take whatever is dished out to them or they can fight and protest and speak out and gather together as one to take on the oppressor. When the oppressor is the one in charge it can be very dangerous to speak up. Dissidents die of poison, or gun-shot wounds, or mysteriously disappear and are never seen again. They can be tortured murdered and dismembered too. It takes desperation to gamble with one's life like that. Do you gamble?