FUD
As you can see, throughout the history of humankind most people were oppressed one way or another. This is not to say that things remained equally bad since a few thousand years ago; most certainly not. Things have been improving steadily, although in order to see this improvement we must look at very large time periods (see The Law of Political Systems Direction). But the oppression is undeniable and the favourite tool of the oppressors has always been fear accompanied by their side-kicks uncertainty and doubt.
If you go back to the renaissance, you will find that even manuals for such endeavours were written. The most famous of Do-It-Yourself-Oppression books is arguably "The Prince" by Niccolò Machiavelli. Many of the topics that Machiavelli lectured about (yes, the book was a lecture) were already included in yet another famous book: "The Art of War", attributed to Sun Tzu and written presumably 1500 years before that.
Going further back, we can find reminders in stone tablets and monuments of all-mighty rulers who governed through fear. The ruler was all-powerful and anyone who dared opposing him (they were usually males), "got what they deserved" in order to "send a message" to the rest of the population. To have an independent opinion (or even worse) to act upon said opinion wasn't exactly healthy and tended to throw life expectancy statistics into disarray.
If we look into the history of oppression we can find the one constant throughout the ages: fear. Fear is the principal tool. Every government (i.e. politician) knows that they are powerless if confronted by a large mass of determined people. If that happens is too late. The trick is to get every person in that group not to become determined in the first place and the most effective and efficient tool to do so is fear. Why spent countless resources (i.e. money) in monitoring everybody if self-monitoring through fear is so much more efficient!
THE CORE OF THE MATTER
And so we arrive at the most important insight that it is possible to have into how governments (i.e. politicians) oppress people: through fear.
Fear has been ubiquitous through the ages. People (particularly in the West) believe that fear is something new. Silly people. People in the East know better as it could not be otherwise since they have not yet evolved politically.
Fear is the universal tool that all governments of any political color use. Fear is the only constant through the ages because to exercise the so-called "political authority" is to exercise naked force. Fear is nothing but a warning that naked brute force will be used unless there is a "change in attitude". Fear is far cheap, effective and efficient and fear is economically viable as even the USSR learned.
People in the west believe that "black ops", "drone bombings" and "massive surveillance" are not the norm; that these policies are something to be corrected in order to "return to the norm". Nothing could be further than the true. Fear as a tool to avoid the expense of naked force is the "norm". Fear is the historical constant at any state level throughout the ages.
Because fear is so obvious and "politically incorrect", fear and naked brute force must be wrapped in invisibility cloaks called laws. Laws are nothing but smoke screens that hide de real power behind them. This enables politicians to present a friendly and cuddly face all the while retaining the reins to their ultimate weapon (force) and its facilitator (fear).
STATE TERRORISM
Fear is simply a concept that must be implemented and the implementation process is called terrorism. Terrorism is the exercise of acts that induce fear in order to achieve an objective. Nowadays people seldom speak about "state sponsored terrorism" because there aren't that many countries in the world that still do this, with the exception of US (in Arab lands) and Russia (in the former USSR territory). But these events have almost no repercussion in countries "that matter" and therefore they are not news-worthy. The notion of "state sponsored terrorism" has already been deprecated and made obsolete although it is still being practiced.
There are all kinds of "state terror"; anywhere from organizing, training, funding and controlling "freedom fighters" or "religious sects" right down to parking ticket officers. Any and all representatives of the state who can make you do something you don't want to do are nothing but agents of state terrorism. In practice it does not matter if you call it "state terrorism" or "state-sponsored terrorism". What matters is that it originates in the state and it does not operate for your benefit.
Let's be clear: States routinely practice terrorism. State terrorism is the norm. F&P
Of all the sources of terrorism anywhere in the world, governments are by far the largest. Keep in mind that all formal military, police, intelligence and security "agents" in the world were trained by governments "for your protection". Are you feeling "safe" yet?
Without state terrorism inducing fear a modern state cannot exist. Think about it. Without fear would you pay taxes? Would you park on your parking spot instead on the street? Would you send your children to lousy and obsolete government schools? Would you accept fiat money? Would you vote? Would you obey traffic laws? Of course not. Most people would not. They would not do so because not doing it would carry no penalty whatsoever because there would be no repercussions and no responsibility. To prevent that, we need a Libertarian system; more precisely an Absolute one where governments do not exist and personal responsibility rests directly on everybody's shoulders, no substitutes or intermediaries.
COMMERCIAL TERRORISM
Although it is true that we advocate for the disintegration of all governments on earth, we are not blind to the fact that when this day finally comes, there will be other terrorisms. Of course there will be commercial terrorism. FUD is a tool widely used even today by many commercial firms. The objective of getting rid of all governments is not to create utopia (we freely admit that we don't know how) but to implement a better, self-controlling system. This system will necessarily be flawed (as any human endeavour is) but it will continue moving in the right direction and this is all we can hope for. When governments finally fall the struggle for control will occur between corporations and they will use any tools at their disposal. The difference will be that they will be fighting to control our spending habits, not to control our entire life. As you can see, at every step of the political evolution the amount of external control over us decreases significantly and this is good. Very good indeed!
CONCLUSION
All governments routinely practice terrorism against us. As a matter of fact, all governments are rooted in terrorism simply because Social Contracts Are A Scam. When solid philosophical grounds are missing, powerful people revert to the flawed "Principle of Authority" (see The Cathedral And The Bazaar). How you may call these acts of terrorism (state-sponsored terrorism or state terrorism) is irrelevant. What is relevant is that all governments induce fear through acts of terrorism in order to control us. This is the ultimate source from where all "Principles of Authority" originate. And now you have a choice. You can continue submitting to the terror or you can see it for what it really is: a control tool. It is entirely your choice. Where you go from here is up to you but remember that you already know fear; wouldn't it prudent now to sample real freedom?
Note: please see the Glossary if you are unfamiliar with certain words.
