Sociological ignorance of citizen participation

Many groups that promote citizen participation are hampered by their own naiveté about the complexity of institutions and relationships which the law enforces. They lack the perspective which a concrete vision of the future would give, and have no distinct vantage point from which to evaluate the strategy for most effectively influencing the social fabric. Their efforts are dissipated in responding to immediacies.

Individual members of a group believe incorrectly that they are each alone or the only deviants in believing or not believing in particular values, while in reality many others, if not the majority, secretly feel exactly as they do.