The movement’s fate, to a large extent, was sealed: their goals were pure, but their failure to understand their challenge as a series of small acts rather than one cataclysmic showdown left them with little chance. Even when martial law was declared and various high-ranking army officials risked their careers and their safety to reach out to the student movement in one last-ditch effort to protect the kids, the movement remained obstinate. It didn’t know how to play the game. It didn’t know when to declare victory, and so it waited too long, only to be crushed.
