All of this raises the question of the extent to which early training (i.e. indoctrination) can be overcome by later experience. It is a question to which Twain offers no easy answers. The reader cannot help but be struck by the underlying pessimism with which he approaches the issue. If training is everything, how can anyone escape the mental enslavement of his or her upbringing? In order to truly deny and negate the values of one's culture, not only would a great deal of counter-training be necessary, but also, a tremendous amount of moral courage would need to be summoned. This is a quality which Twain emphatically believes most human beings lack. He makes this point with withering acerbity in Colonel Sherburn's speech to the mob in chapter 22, which might just as well be Twain, himself, speaking directly to the reader. The address is savagely disdainful, and denounces the average person as a coward. It also decries the mob mentality, wherein no one has the fortitude to go against the majority, or to act without it. So long as these are parts of human nature, the attainment of true freedom will be as likely as Sisyphus getting his rock to the top of the hill. We are all slaves in our own way. According to Twain, we are likely to remain so for the foreseeable future.