Fear
Fear is the only means that civil government has to control its citizens.1 That has always been true but as we look at the methods governments use to protect (i.e. - control) their citizens, we can see that modern governments have developed new and more subtle ways to create and support that fear, all in our best interests.
The oldest and most obvious method is the fear of direct harm. Comply or you will be arrested, tried and imprisoned in terrible conditions. Perhaps you will be tortured to make you confess your crimes or reveal others who are “guilty” like you. Or they don’t bother to arrest you but merely attack you in the street and beat or shoot you. Or you just disappear. It saves them the time and bother of a trial. They already know you are guilty!
The threat of direct harm has been the weapon of choice used by kings and tyrants to control their people throughout the ages, and it is still in use by evil despots today. But fear not (pun intended)! Our modern governments have avoided the tyrant label by using more subtle and acceptable, though no less oppressive, means to exert control over the people.
The first of the modern methods is the fear of being ostracized. You will be labeled as a conspiracy theorist, a science denier, a White supremacist, or even – worst of all - a Trump supporter! You will be accused of spreading misinformation or dis-information! In the modern internet age with social media and big tech this more subtle method of totalitarianism can creep into the most “free” of nations.
In Colonial times, political pamphlets were popular means of spreading ideas outside of what was covered in the newspapers, which was primarily government actions and the most important happenings of the day.2 Pamphlets could be published on a variety of subjects, with or without authorship. Anonymous pamphlets could be published if the authors feared any adverse consequences from publishing their views. Anonymous social media accounts can provide a similar measure of anonymity today.3
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) practices censorship and punishes violators comprehensively in China with the social credit score, so that not only can you be socially shunned but also denied housing or employment. But so far, western countries do this more subtly through their allies the main stream media and big tech. They continually label the official narrative as true and label any view that differs from the party line as misinformation. The recent Twitter Files releases revealed the direct role that the US Federal government played in censoring dissenting views on Twitter (and presumably other platforms as well). Mark Zuckerberg admitted outright on the Joe Rogan podcast that Facebook had limited information about the Hunter Biden laptop in the days leading up to the 2020 Presidential Election at the request of the Federal government.4
Corporations and businesses do their part to assist governments implement the official narrative by requiring their employees to go through diversity training (now rebranded as Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) on threat of being denied advancement. While these programs have positive sounding names, they include specific philosophies to which all employees must adhere to be part of the team. These philosophies are set at the corporate level, taking away individual viewpoints and requiring that all employees share the “correct” views.5 The government doesn’t directly threaten you but the corporate leaders who are part of the elite do it for them.
The use of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), often funded with government grants, is another commonly used means by which the official narrative can be furthered.
One definition of Fascism is the government’s use of the private sector to do its bidding, with the civil government utilizing these private organizations to further its interests. And since any advancement, and even your continued employment, is dependent on your compliance with the official narrative, this collaboration of corporations and government is essentially a CCP-style social credit score indirectly implemented by corporations on behalf of the government.
Another more subtle way is to have experts instill fear of an external force that will harm or destroy you and the ones you love, and then implement a series of policies or requirements to “protect” you from harm. This is the classic Hegelian dialectic of thesis-antithesis-synthesis or problem-reaction-solution. The experts say the environment will be destroyed unless you give up fossil fuels and pay dramatically higher taxes to battle climate change. The experts say there is a virus spreading that will kill you and the ones you love unless you stay in your house, wear a mask over your face (or maybe two or three masks at once) and inject insufficiently tested experimental chemicals into your arm. Your means of supporting yourself were denied you by lockdowns recommended by experts, to be replaced by benevolent government payments. Your relationships were broken by required social distancing that was recommended by experts. And your children’s normal development was destroyed by isolation, masks and remote learning - all to protect you from worse dangers - and recommended by experts.
If we learned nothing else from the “pandemic” it was how unreliable the experts are, as they sometimes changed their advice with no apparent basis (masks, no masks, masks again, maybe two masks) and were discovered to have given advice that they knew was contrary to the facts.6
And all of these means of control are mandatory for only the regular citizens. The elite are exempt. But they don’t actually call themselves the elite. They are multi-national or national officials working hard to solve the problems (that they have created) and their work is too important to be hindered by the restrictions placed on you, the masses they work so hard to protect and save. They are the corporate leaders of multi-national corporations, or celebrity spokespersons, who also labor diligently in alignment with government leaders. All of them must use private jets to travel swiftly and without mixing with the distracting (and perhaps dangerous) general population. And masks aren’t needed for them as they work so sacrificially to save us from these existential threats. And thankfully they are willing to risk their health and safety by traveling around the world to Davos, the UN, or Brussels to do the self-sacrificing work of protecting you from the existential danger you face, despite the daily fear they face for us.
So fear not! Though the world is a scary place filled with existential threats, we can be encouraged and relieved to know that our government leaders, their corporate allies and the experts are working tirelessly to build us a world in which we can live without fear, safe and secure in their embrace.
It is not completely true that fear is the only tool. Fear is not as necessary if the population can be kept ignorant. A populace that is unable to think critically, and lacks a basic understanding of mathematics, science and history, will believe whatever they are told by the civil government, the media and the experts. And it is on a sliding scale, for the more the populace can be kept ignorant, the less fear will be needed. (The tactic of intentional ignorance is a topic for another time.)
Trail to the Voting Booth; An Exploration of Political Ephemera, Political Pamphlets, University of Delaware. https://exhibitions.lib.udel.edu/trail-to-the-voting-booth/on-the-trail/political-pamphlets/
An article in The American Sun, A Defense of Anonymity by Patrick Casey explores the topic of online anonymity. Casey reviews the pros and cons of anonymous Twitter accounts through the posted remarks of well-known Twitter authors. https://theamericansun.com/2022/04/13/in-defense-of-anonymity/
The Joe Rogan Experience, Episode #1863, August 25, 2022
We object to any top-down enactment or enforcement of a required worldview, be if Left or Right, religious or secular. In America, our Constitution provides us with many rights, including the rights of free exercise of religion, freedom of speech and of the press, the right to peaceably assemble and the right to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. Foundational to these outward rights are the rights of thought and belief. We should not be forced by the government, or by corporations or others working at the behest of, or in concert with, the government to think and believe only the official narrative. Should the government or its proxies require beliefs that exactly match my own beliefs, I would still object to the requirement.
As an example, Rochelle Walensky, CDC Director, stated unequivocally that the covid vaccine was safe and effective for women who were trying to conceive, were pregnant or were breastfeeding (link), despite the one randomized trial having been stopped without being completed and the results to this day not having been released (link).