Your words are true enough. Problem: when things have deteriorated to a certain point, the individual citizen who would "do something" that would actually address the underlying issues is left with few options that don't incur a high risk of personal injury, death, loss of all his worldly wealth or -- perhaps if he were lucky -- spending the rest of his life in prison.

As the political regime further deteriorates, many citizens face those and other risks even if they do nothing.