>So what changed? Only that some elites have an agenda and scaring people to act and behave a certain way is in their interest. Well, older civilizations actually regularly purged and killed cowards. I think what changed is that tyrants realized that protecting these people is the easiest way to subjugate a nation. These aren't the "same people" as our ancestors who have just been scared into conformity. They are people who in older times would've been beaten within an inch of death, exiled, challenged to combat, etc. My brother is a perfect example. The way he treats my mom, the rest of us have laid him the fuck out multiple times and he always has 911 on speed-dial. Without the protection of the state, people like him would sing a much different tune. And he is the only liberal in our family. In essence, the oligarchs you mentioned are doing everything they can to disable civilizations natural immune system, which naturally takes offense to injustice and cowardice, and naturally seeks to resolve it. For example, eating raw eggs. Salmonella is ALWAYS present EVERY TIME you eat a raw egg, but a healthy immune system will almost always disperse of it. It's when the immune system is compromised, for example an old woman who ate cookie dough, that's when infection sets in. So this malicious bacteria is always there, always in society, but has no ability to infect it's host, unless the immune system is compromised. Which is what has happened. That's what changed between then and now, in my opinion.