• A Social Scientist Tries to Explain The Logic of Collective Action to an Activist during a Violent Protest

At the radio-television building, the shock waves from explosions blew out the windows of neighboring apartment buildings, raining glass upon the crowd below. When the main action was over, my Lithuanian friends turned to me and, referring to the Parliament building perhaps a mile or two distant, said, “They will attack the Parliament building next, we must go to the Parliament building.” I tried to explain that our individual contributions were insignificant in the whole scheme of things, but this argument fell on deaf ears. At the time, it seemed quite probable that the Soviets would forcibly crush Lithuanian resistance, no doubt killing a few more people along the way. And my friend wanted to be part of this event.

Joe the Plumber, when asked if he was going to run for office:

I hope not. You know, I talked to God about that and he was, like, “No”.