Ave Imperium!

Nguyen Chi Thien at Ba Sao Prison, July, 1991. Photo taken in the office
of the Chief of Security. After eight years of solitary darkness the poet
is still unwilling to swear allegiance to Communism. He won the battle
of will with the power of his mind. Chi Thien predicted the fall of
communism in Russia that occurred the following month. He also
predicted, in his poetry, the need for Vietnamese people to "make of
themselves a raft" and leave their homeland in order to survive.

MORE ABOUT NGUYEN CHI THIEN, DISSIDENT POET AND POLITICAL PRISONER FOR TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS
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During World War II, recalls Molly Worthen of The New Republic, those who refused to recognize the State as their liege attracted the eager attention of pious souls willing to correct their thinking:

"Violence against Jehovah’s Witnesses [who reject oaths of allegiance to any government] erupted in hundreds of towns across the nation. In Wyoming, a mob tarred and feathered a Witness. Public officials permitted beatings in Texas and Illinois; in Nebraska, self-appointed patriots castrated another."