5. Controlled Opposition
All famous opposition groups in human history have been controlled opposition: Aristocrats & agents in disguise, who just pretend to oppose the corrupt government, but are secretly part of it. This has never been officially admitted anywhere, but you can read it in the encrypted ancient texts.
Controlled opposition prevents real opposition
Miles has shown that the fakery & hoaxing used to rule us is often easy to see through. How then have government critics of all times missed that? Sadly, Miles has also shown that all famous opposition parties in human history have been controlled opposition (controp), staffed with secret agents, led by disguised aristocrats. That’s why their revolutions & reforms always fell short of meaningful changes. It was on purpose!
A well-designed controlled opposition party achieves several goals, walking a fine line:
- Some controps are enacted as ridiculous & dangerous, so regular subjects start to loathe & fear all opposition.
- Some controps are enacted as moderately promising, so actual critics rally behind them, are led by the nose in circles, and achieve nothing.
- Some controps are allowed to stage a fake revolution, and make drastic changes, which wouldn’t be accepted if people knew the old government was behind it.
- By feeding different social bubbles, sometimes one controp party can play all 3 roles. The prime example is Communism.
I assume that in early Sumer & Egypt, this trick was not yet necessary. Instead, the mere thought of criticism was forbidden. But in classical antiquity, a large educated urban middle-class had developed, and their half-free thinking was needed to keep things running. So controlled opposition was invented to keep criticism in check.
Staffing the opposition with government agents
Josephus has written a lengthy section about how the rulers control all opposition, so he’s my main source here.
In a first step, nobles are made leaders of opposition groups. For real opposition leaders, fighting an all-powerful government is a huge problem. But the false leaders are secretly helped by the same government, so they’ll naturally be successful. Opposition forces will then think they make better decisions, and will flock to their false banner.
Here’s how Josephus describes the planting of aristocratic moles as opposition leaders:
The aristocrats pretended to have no power, while they were in fact controlling the whole show. And as a disguise, they even became an ally of the opposition, where they would campaign against their own rulership, as a show and a joke.
The servants could not see through the aristocracy’s simulation, so they all became agitated by it.
Not long after, as an additional defense, lesser aristocrats were sent to be opposition leaders, with the intention that they would learn who the main culprits were, and also to learn about the opposition’s secret signaling.
These people, although they were in fact privileged elites, became the headstrong leaders of the opposition. They were actually beforehand nominated from among the powerful.
They could then even catch those parts of the opposition forces who had remained in other divisions. The secret watchmen in many places among the multitudes would warn them about any dangers, so they would always prevail in their plans.
And since they had prevailed so magnificently, they were then appointed as ruling heroes, for pretending to fight with the slaves, and for pretending that they would free the citizens from the nobility.
So perished then the opposition, by this plot of secretly playing opposition with relatives, who were actually nobility themselves. By these means, the servants were thwarted. It was all produced for the completion of the enveloping, or imprisoning, of all the troublesome common folk.
Influencing the subjects against opposition
Of course, once the government moles are in charge of the revolutionary forces, they won’t carry out any actual revolution. Typically, they either choose to let the revolution suceed, but then quickly morph into an old-fashioned oppressive government again. Or they turn the revolutionaries into a mockery & menace, so that they will predictably be hated by the common population, and then have them fail.
Also, whenever they learned beforehand that a new attack was forming, they went into the multitudes to influence them against it. They had much confidence in the common people here, concerning their furious excitement to accuse one another, and also their hatred of any opposition’s unlawfulness.
So, even though sometimes some actual opposition was still stirred up, and would enter the stage through some other group of people, it was repulsed quickly and naturally by the common people themselves, who had by this time already accepted their own prison.
Ultimately, the false opposition leaders would withdraw to some real rulership for protection, simply becoming the government.
And when they inherited this rulership over the people’s prison from their fathers, and their rightful place in the public view, they swiftly attacked all actual opposition.
But to assist the whole dress-up and their enacted image, they used excuses here, and displayed themselves as if they were actually a different kind of ruler. They were then established by genuine passions.
As for the actual opposition, after it was worn out, it was then also used as a dress-up and a created image. This opposition, which had been exchanged for a fabricated performance, was brought forward into easy view, and intentionally made to look shameful. And it was pretended that if things were not put in order, then an insurrection would threaten society.
Upon seeing that, of course the common people were enraged, under full distress, and would enter a state of fear.
Controlled opposition is better than direct brutality
That’s one freaking over-convoluted way to deal with criticism as a ruler: Creating & playing your own opposition! Strangely, the aristocrats recommend it as a tried & tested method. Benevolence & honesty just isn’t an option for them, so play-enacting a fake opposition is better than the only alternative they can think of: crushing dissent with open violence. Because then everyone would see them for what they are: cruel & arrogant bastards, who have too much power.
Overall, this whole dress-up was not put on just for acting strange, or for playing clever tricks for fun. Rather, it was to control the angry passions of the slaves, and to put those slaves against each other who out of pride wouldn’t bow down to rulers by themselves, while still refraining from showing their real power too clearly.
For themselves, it was better to create this clever scheme out of actual opposition, than to deal with it in a straightforward way. Because that would show that they could impose punishment on just anyone, against the will of the servants.