By our own volition we are generalists. Our job is to point at the obviousness of the big picture and remind you that it exists by forcing you to think about it. As all humans are differential machines, we are only sensitive to immediate and large changes. Very large differences happening beyond our attention span are… well… not paid any attention at all. This is, of course, part of our survival mechanism. We cannot be thinking about major problems that originated in the past if we wish not to be eaten by that sabre-tooth tiger or some other pre-historical animal right in front of us. In order to survive we needed to be in the "here" and in the "now" and this presents a handicap in today's world.
THE ISSUE
Invisibility
People feel strange in today's world. They intuitively understand that something is wrong but since their attention span is so short, they cannot pinpoint the issue. This is correct. The issue spawned over decades and as such and unless you are a student of history, it is invisible to you.
Violence & Oppression
What we feel can often be described as muted violence and implicit oppression. We feel as if we are watching over our shoulder all the time, expecting some mighty force from the government to strike us down at any moment. We feel as if we are being watched everywhere we go and at all times. Of course, some of us will necessarily be clinically ill (as in paranoid persecution) but most of us are just average people. The majority of us cannot be ill, this is statistically impossible. The famous Sherlock Holmes said "Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth" and we add "just because you may be of paranoid nature, this does not mean there aren't people out to get you". What you feel is real; it is an expression of reality and not a figment of your fertile imagination. How sad indeed. From a dream you can wake-up, but how do you wake-up from reality? We can't run and even if we could, there is no safe heaven (see for example Your Country Is Your Prison Cell).
Superficial analysis
People with slightly superior analytical skills may have taken a few extra minutes to analyze these feelings and compare them with reality. What they observed and deduced was that the government was indeed exercising muted violence and implicit oppression (as a minimum) against them. There is indeed tension in the air; like a silent war being fought in which nobody is above suspicion. And that means you!
Cognitive dissonance
Yet, you feel confused. On one hand you have all those feelings that originate in reality. On the other hand, you have all the reassurances and guarantees governments give us about being "safe" from "the enemy". The enemy being terrorism or revolutionaries or other governments or threatening wars or… or… or… And yet, the picture does not make sense entirely and it does not seem to be complete. We feel a sense of stress and discomfort originating from somewhere as if the messages were contradictory. This is because they are. What you are feeling is known in psychology as Cognitive Dissonance. Is the same feeling you have when you are listening to your favourite song and suddenly there is an overwhelming note out of tune or script. It sounds awful and we react with disgust and anguish. We are here today to let you know that yes indeed, there is something quite large out of script.
The usual suspects
What is out of script is the usual set of usual suspects: governments. Governments assure their citizens of their "safety" in an obvious attempt to use reverse psychology to scare people into supporting them no matter what. This is nothing if not yet another ploy to keep politicians in their jobs of privilege, and if you care to look deeper, you will notice that all the threats actually originate from the governments! It is them who are oppressing us with their rules that were placed in play without our consent. It is them who are threatening us with violence should we not conform to their rules.
Once you come to this realization, once you add the missing piece to the puzzle, then the dissonance goes away.
Business as usual
Once people have reached this epiphany they have the tendency to stop, nod with the head and go on with their lives. This is so because deep down they were expecting this result. Deep down they don't trust governments (see for example In Government We Distrust) an expect government to oppress them. And why not? This is the most current state of affairs. Governments have been oppressing people systematically for at least 20 or so years. What happened before that time has been forgotten. Being oppressed is the "normal" state of affairs. And so, reaching the conclusion that you are indeed oppressed is nothing new.
But then again…
We have the few, the brave, the ones with memory who remember that things were also like that in the more distant past. Today we have police with military gear, secret organizations monitoring and analyzing everything we do, illegal but widespread covert operations in our own soil, snitch lines, hidden wars, over bloated black budgets and classified decrees quietly overriding and overwriting laws. If we look at this recent past it becomes immediately clear that governments are indeed at war, at war with us. We are the enemy. We are the target.
Nothing new under the sun
But if we keep moving back into the past, we enter an era where we were also targets; the era of state-sponsored terrorism. This was the era of the 70's when Communist countries (mostly) organized, trained, funded and controlled all kinds of "revolutionary" groups who tried to bring about communism through terrorism by de-stabilizing democracies. During this era the -not yet labelled- "war on terrorism" was the war against government agents… of which we were all suspects. Most people in Latin America remember quite well the "Dirty Wars" which produced "collateral damage" in excess of 1 to 10. In this war, there was a regression from state-sponsored terrorism (or to be precise the export of such terror) to internal state terrorism under the excuse of "extreme measures". Under one or another, we were also the targets.
The good old 60's
If we continue regressing the clock, we will find ourselves in the 60's. This was a period state-to-state terrorism where western tools and technologies were developed to topple governments. Of course, in the east those tools were developed long time ago, but they were not put in practice very often as the west did. Again, we were the targets but this time at the state level. Once there was a "change in government" it was critical for the "new regime" to "control" the population thus preventing a "counter-revolution"… or at least that was the excuse.
The 50's at war
Further back, we find the war-wars. Wars by proxy that were fought between the west and the east. Those were real wars with real armies fighting real battles. However, in the background, governments continued to play their games "searching and destroying" "sympathizers" and "collaborators". During this era, we again were targets.
WWII
Moving further backwards in time, we land on WWII. This time we not only find real wars, but much more extended conflicts which involved at least half of the countries in the world… while the other half was playing their local games of supporting one side or the other while persecuting and destroying the "opposition". One way or another, we were also targets.
WWI
Further back we find WWI. This was also a massive war which was fought primarily by proxy between generals hiding behind royals. This was not a "royal" war; this was a military aristocracy at war by proxy, and the proxy was us. True, it involved less countries than WWII but the oppression from the state was equally intense. It came from either pushing people to be cannon fodder or simply crushing them through oligarchic power. Belonging was critical. Groups supported groups who were in turn supported by the mighty power of the government… controlled by politicians. In practice, we were enslaved by governments. We were targets to control.
Going further backwards…
We can continue to move backwards through history with the same result. At any given point of time, there were only two classes: those who controlled and those who were targets. True, the further down the historical path the more brutal the control, but control nevertheless.
Note: please see the Glossary if you are unfamiliar with certain words.