Blueprint for Revolution: how to use rice pudding, Lego men, and other non-violent techniques to galvanise communities, overthrow dictators, or simply change the world

by Srdja Popovic

They should have taken a moment to assess their position and realize that they weren’t ready to knock out Iron Mike himself. Really, they’d done something amazing. After all, the Chinese government is not one to make concessions to anyone, let alone a bunch of kids. So just by getting the Communist Party to consider some of their concerns, the student activists had already pulled off a big coup. The best move for them to make next would have been to announce their achievements far and wide, proclaiming, with a great degree of truth, that they had just succeeded in subduing the mighty Chinese government. Then level two of the game would have begun almost immediately, with the students using their clout to push the envelope just a little bit further, using the skills they’d acquired during the first round of confrontations to improve their positions.