I’ve got to say I read this several hours ago and my subconscious has been working on it since. I think I know what you’re conveying. The level of planning and gamesmanship involved in manipulating the behavior of the populace is very sophisticated and will generally work on some of the people some of the time if not the 60% the Soviet model claims.

However, I would posit the Soviet model’s numbers are from a bygone era and probably before the information age began to bear fruit as it did in the late ’80s, to mid-’90s, perhaps the information age is the lit fuse that brought about the eventual downfall of the Soviet Union. At its peak, the Soviets had absolute control over the free flow of information in Russia. Now the various nation-states are trying their damndest to reboot or regain the type of power they had back in the day.

Russia is banning religions similar to China, yet they haven’t gone so far as to impose a social credit system. The PRC has the people of Hong Kong up in arms (metaphorically speaking) because they don’t want to live in the high tech dystopia the mainland just rolled out, and that’s not to ignore the low tech horrors that have been going on for ages now.

In America, the U.S. continues to test its limits on multiple fronts. In New York, people in the corporate world are coerced into adopting one of the many hundred-odd gender pronouns for each individual, or else pay staggeringly unrealistic fines. Many of the several states are facing an ever-increasing test on the right to bear arms and their various accessories such as bump stocks, high capacity magazines, and silencers. Additionally, there is a war on those who would choose not to take vaccinations. It’s slow going, insidious, but always marching forward.

Ultimately, I don’t think we should discount the power of the people to shed sunlight, the great disinfectant, upon all corners of tyranny throughout the globe, this will happen naturally with the communication power the internet has provided us. I foresee the war on ideas will continue on for decades, and the people will equally resist it. As the government’s crackdown, it will only make the problem worse for them as necessity is the mother of invention and the people will be forced to improvise.

I think the struggle between liberty and tyranny will go on forever, as it has since the beginning of time. Despite the propaganda, there are no clear winners or losers. The way I see it, both Orwell and Huxley are being proven right every day. It’s not just them either; many other futurists are right as well. Essentially, those things we focus on the most become reality constructs in our mind. That’s not to say there is no objective truth to be had. Everyone is running around divining their own truths and building unique reality tunnels.

The mainstream corporate news and entertainment industry plays a big role in keeping a majority of people grounded into a reality that is projected for us, similar to Plato’s cave. However, one could just as easily veer off the beaten path by picking up a book, writing a story, or predicting alternate futures that or more palatable than Orwell and Huxley’s visions. If we live these future outcomes in the present day, even in small ways, it will carve a path in that direction.

I guess what I’m saying is that resistance is not futile, and we should have faith in the power of our individual and collective spirit or willpower. In this world, it seems like everything is intended to drain our life force, but with a little shift in focus and belief in ourselves we can make great changes to not only the terrain but also the internal landscape of others. The ability to communicate; that alone, is an immense superpower we all have.

You are certainly doing it justice, and I hope more will follow your example. Have you ever put any thought into writing inspirational works of fiction that might convey to people how to live with a spirit of authenticity, or resist tyranny in clever ways? It seems like the best works of fiction I’ve enjoyed have always been people who resist unthinkable levels of tyranny and prevail.

Or maybe the A team needs something equivalent to the B team’s rules for radicals. Maybe we need a rule’s for fill in the blank, a handbook that outlines how we can carve a path to winning peacefully with effective persuasion. Or can you recommend any works on these topics that I may be unaware of? Thanks for reading this ridiculously long comment—I’m just spitballing over here.