<tin foil on> Supposedly democratic governments learned a few tricks on how they could manipulate the opinions of the governed to avoid being thrown out. Some f

<tin foil on> Supposedly democratic governments learned a few tricks on how they could manipulate the opinions of the governed to avoid being thrown out. Some fear works. Wars, too (that is, when at war people will cut their government extra slack), so they claim wars on {drugs,terrorism,...}. They also leverage mass media. This is not a relationship of control, just symbiosis: fear is still pretty easy to sell. <tin foil off>