The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.
Over the centuries the Indians developed sign language for communicating phenomena of interest. Programmers from different tribes (FORTRAN, LISP, ALGOL, SNOBOL, etc.) could use one that doesn't require them to carry a blackboard on their ponies.
The old dreams were very good dreams; they didn't work out, but I'm glad I had them.