You cannot control your own population by force, but it can be distracted by consumption.

The Iranian government is undoubtedly a severe danger to its own population, but not beyond that.

There is massive propaganda for everyone to consume. Consumption is good for profits and consumption is good for the political establishment.

In the moral calculus of currently prevailing state capitalism, profits and bonuses in the next quarter greatly outweigh concern for the welfare of one’s grandchildren, and since these are institutional maladies, they will not be easy to overcome. While much remains uncertain, we can assure ourselves, with fair confidence, that future generations will not forgive us our silence and apathy.

If you have to control people, you have to have an administrative force that does it. So in U.S. industry, even more than elsewhere, there's layer after layer of management - a kind of economic waste, but useful for control and domination. And the same is true in universities.

Control is the source of strategic power.