Reflecting on something that always repeats and will never change. Individuals kidnap other individuals, or do worse, and these subjugated individuals rarely defend themselves when the kidnapper is someone claiming to represent an entity, an abstraction (governments). It’s as if the aggressor ceases to be an individual and becomes something complex, superior—and the victim sees them that way too.
I even understand cases where people don’t defend themselves against this arbitrariness; the reasons vary: “Don’t react or you’ll die,” “They’ll realize it was a mistake,” “I’ll prove I’m innocent”—always the victim. In cases where these aggressions are frequent and systematic, the best alternative is to flee, because you don’t need to defend yourself or use violence. Yet most people submit, hire lawyers, and present themselves before them as citizens, acknowledging they’re not individuals but pieces needing a controller. They don’t properly defend themselves against these individuals when escape isn’t possible. Defense can be physical, lethal or not—but we won’t go down that path. Let’s take the path of “I don’t recognize these laws, and I don’t grant you my authority,” “I don’t recognize this demand you make of me.”
Many years ago, I gave a ride to a Black coworker. During conversations about politics, he questioned himself and asked me, “Why, during slavery in Brazil, weren’t there revolts that led to freedom? We were the majority—why didn’t everyone rise up and liberate themselves?” At the time, I replied that most likely, no one wanted to die, few would join, and everything would quickly return to how it was. If each individual asserted their own authority, thousands would certainly die—as happened in some revolts—but they wouldn’t know how to handle a majority of such individuals. So why have we never asserted ourselves? Examples abound even today, physical and financial, those who rebelled are forgotten, and the few who stand out among the victims become martyrs.
Someone must have already explained this—the belief the majority holds in authorities, which always leads to genocide, slavery, kidnappings, poverty, and worse. The Matrix is far denser, heavier, and a simple pill won’t fix it; you must leave the cocoon yourself, and depending on how you leave, the drones will deal with you.