In the face of totalitarians one cannot retreat into one's private life for they, being totalitarians, won't allow any private life. So the conservative is forced willy-nilly to become an activist against his natural tendency. He must draw a line in the sand and say "This far but no farther."
A minor example. My friends Peter and Mike who teach at community colleges in Maricopa County, Arizona, were on the rant once again yesterday morning over the smoking ban that went into effect on 1 July. This draconian ruling forbids smoking anywhere on campus, including parking lots and closed cars in such lots. Bear in mind that reasonable smoking restrictions were already in effect and that my friends, only one of whom smokes, had no objection to them.
Now what is behind the new ruling? Nothing but lust for power and a desire on the part of its promoters to outdo themselves in pursuit of PC thereby earning 'brownie-points' with the higher-ups. (I intend 'brownie-points' as a double-entendre with an allusion to brown-nosing.)
And so the breakfast conversation turned to means of combating the insanity: massive disobedience, smoke-ins, and libertarian 'flash mobs': the tweets go out, the students and faculty assemble quickly to blow some smoke and then just as quickly disperse. Imagine several such mobs assembling and dispersing at different open-air campus locations on a single day.
The people charged with enforcement would be overwhelmed, the ruling would be flouted into risibility, and then ignored.
Mockery and derision are powerful weapons and perfectly legitimate when one is dealing with willfully stupid and morally stunted Pee-Cee power-heads.
Companion post: The Conservative Disadvantage