. Notably, dissidents rarely win because of appeals to their opponents’ conscience or attacks on the morality of their adversary. Instead, a key insight from Gene Sharp’s work (and Hannah Arendt’ s before him) is that no power holders can maintain the status quo without the support and acquiescence of thousands — or even millions — of people who routinely cooperate with them. This can include economic elites, civil servants, cultural authorities and security forces. Successful movements tend to shift the allegiances of various elites and loyalists within these societal pillars. Defection, desertion or noncooperation by security forces can be especially important. For example, in one well-known episode, Serbian police refused to fire on protesters demanding Slobodan Milosevic’s resignation in October 2000. When asked, those police remarked that they didn’t shoot because they saw familiar faces — including their children — in the crowd.