Control

"An educated, healthy and confident nation is harder to govern" - Tony Benn, British politician & writer, 2007.

Tony Benn, British politician & writer, President of the Stop the War Coalition.

I think there are two ways in which people are controlled.

First of all frighten people, and secondly demoralize them.

An educated, healthy and confident nation is harder to govern.

And I think there is an element in the thinking of some people: we don’t want people to be educated, healthy and confident because they would get out of control.

The top 1% of the world’s population own 80% of the world’s wealth. It’s incredible that people put up with it, but, they’re poorer, they’re demoralized, they're frightened. And therefore they think perhaps the safest thing to do is take orders and hope for the best.