Terror Management Theory

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terror_management_theory

2 basic but cardinal narratives prevent people from challenging the machinery of their exploitation:

1. "the world is incomprehensibly complex and you will never understand it"
2. "the world is unimaginably terrifying and the ruling class are the only group who can properly protect you"

you can conjure up something more dramatic, maybe by invoking the nuances of mortality salience, as described by Becker in his "denial of death", but it basically comes down to those two pillars of propaganda that are beaten into us with the dominant culture's apparatus of control: words, stories, suggestion and sway etc


hearts, minds and genitals
on the bloody altar of capitalism
in the name of security
that ethereal signifier of protection from
    an abstract threat
    the Other
    terror itself
    unpredictable change
    the illusory bogeyman
    a ghost story
    a lie
    the falling sky

in the quarries of big data
in which the behavioural residues amass
    every consumer choice
    every pornographic preference
    every portal entered
    every electric decision
    every logic gate passed
    every choice of words
    every like
    every click
    every view
    every search

is mined, processed, and woven together into
    a tapestry of impulse and intention
    a profile of cognition and choice
    a frottage of identity
    a fingerprint of your mind and soul

fed into the neural net
    in the clouds
    in the sky
    in the all-seeing eye
so the machine can learn

on this altar
the sanctity of the self is sacrificed
    except it's not sacrificed,
    as that would imply some level of complicity.
    no, it is murdered
stabbed in the back of the back
right where it's hard to see
by the Bernays disciples
who can afford anonymity
and grin at the glistening jewel
of our Pavlovian drool

and it's a one way mirror they're looking through

believe me

there's a valve on the direction in which the information flows

so they know everything about you

while you know nothing about them

these orchestrators of data extraction

these people who have names and addresses

these people

you're too busy trying to put food on the table

to follow

and calmly ask
"excuse me sir, what the devil do you think you're doing?"

    everything bends towards a black hole

    even light is bent

    and distorted

    eventually you'll be stretched beyond all recognition

    you'll be scrambled

    spaghettified

    and turned into bits

don't even get close

or you'll get sucked in