Modern governments and industries work in collusion to control the individual. But ironically, they were only able to grow powerful by exploiting the desire to be an individual.

According to Yuval Noah Harari’s book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, governments started out as simple gangs, collecting protection money.

"Many kingdoms and empires were in truth little more than large protection rackets. The king was the capo di tutti capi who collected protection money, and in return made sure that neighbouring crime syndicates and local small fry did not harm those under his protection. He did little else."

Governments needed to rebrand if they wanted to expand into family and community affairs. This is how the great partnership of government and industry was born. They needed each other, they fed off one another.

Governments marketed themselves to the people by appealing to the desire to be an individual. Governments said they would liberate the people from the oppressive regimes of the family and community.

This all happened during a time when you couldn’t simply hop on the internet and find your own “tribe.” It wasn’t so easy to move away, and start fresh.