:-)

The politics of a country produces its subjects. Where the ordinary person is treated as a criminal, he soon becomes a thief, a cheat, one who flies his flag to the wind. Countries that have long been under strife, colonial interests, constant conflict, produce citizens who are closest to themselves and where honesty may even be stupid. My family grew up in times where, due to a planned economy, people lined their pockets wherever they could, because entrepreneurship and their own initiative were not important. People stole flour and fuel when no one was looking. People stole from the authorities, but those who were caught had to reckon with harsh punishments and no one who would vouch for them. So it was a matter of not getting caught. One lived dangerously, but with less inner obedience. Which was capped by external obedience. When we changed countries, it was a shock that suddenly you could buy anything, just like that, in a shop. But my parents, who had been used to something completely different for many decades, maintained their self-sufficiency mentality and our garden was cultivated by them, even though they could have bought it from the supermarket with less work and much cheaper. We children thought they were stupid. Today I have much more respect for them.

Keeping a balance between scarcity and abundance is probably a very difficult task.

Where people grow up being able to get everything everywhere and at all times, you get people who take this for granted that stealing, cheating or ideological acting would not be necessary. This is understandable, but these ideals cannot be upheld if they are enforced on the basis of general suspicion, pressure from the authorities, when by their nature they can only ever be provided voluntarily. Where you want to blackmail people into absolute honesty and trustworthiness, you achieve the exact opposite. Interestingly, general suspicion happens precisely when there is no real reason to do so, for example, when politicians desperately want to sell their people something that they would never have agreed to in a normal peaceful situation.

... I suppose I have digressed a little. I wish you to keep the lightness of being. I sometimes lose it.