Because small refusals accumulate, they generate scale. The mountain in Lorde’s metaphor is built sediment by sediment, each grain a brief interruption of silence. Social scientists describe similar dynamics: threshold models of collective behavior show how one person’s act lowers the barrier for the next (Mark Granovetter, American Journal of Sociology, 1978).
Likewise, James C. Scott’s “Weapons of the Weak” (1985) catalogs how everyday subversions—foot-dragging, rumor, selective compliance—quietly reshape power. Insistence, then, is compound interest applied to courage. [...]
