Conservatives "cling to their guns and god" and Liberals cling to their "good will" and government The further a culture moves from its religion the closer it moves to its government. Humans have a need for the illusion of empowerment and a grand scheme beyond their own lives. With religion humans get the comfort that there is something watching over them giving their lives meaning. It gives them a grand epic to be a part of; everyone working for the end judgment whatever form that judgment takes. After they lose their faith in the fairytale they look to more humanistic forms of empowerment, the idea that the people in charge are in control and can save us from ourselves and all other forces in the world, whether that force be the evil Republicans that are destroying our nations benignness or the global warming that the Republicans caused. Both are reflexive reactions to the feeling of loss of control. Neither demon can be struck down by the will of the people, of course. The empowerment of the lower levels of society is always dangerous to those at the top of society. Winners want to keep on winning. The lower levels of society win by gaining what the top of society had monopolies on. The previous winners, those on top, begin to lose. Those who begin losing tend to continue losing as they attempt to grasp at what was previously theirs. This eventually leads to social upheaval. The top of society prevents this from occurring by two methods. The first is by ensuring those at the lower levels are without and devote their lives solely on attempting to get by. The second is by causing the lower levels to rely on the top for support and thereby. They will only give enough for basic subsistence, but once this system is established the lower levels rely on the established social structure for their daily bread, and will in fact fight to keep this system in place. Giving is a method of control. It is a display of dominance that keeps the beneficiary in a state of obligation and submission in order to continue receiving. But the receivers of the gift will always maintain a level of malice toward this arrangement as they are reliant on the giver and are jealous of what the giver has. There by a giver in order to maintain the situation where they are dominant must take care not to give too much or risk enabling their beneficiary. Those that want from a benefactor are satisfied with the system as is, and are in a mindset where they are unable to see their own potential by necessity. They cannot perceive the transaction being any different. This is the case of individuals under deep oppression of either body or spirit. It requires a state of mind of the beneficiary that they view the benefactor as superior. When the benefactor is a state it requires the beneficiary to view the state as an embodiment of supremacy. This illusion of control becomes real due to the subjective viewpoints of each member embedded in this society. That is enough. In reality both parties could have equal potential but the situation has placed one as “superior” to the other. Neither party recognizes this or the system would collapse as it is a system based only in the subjective. This is the illusion of control. The human mind cannot tolerate a disorderly world. By design the human mind is set up to create order out of chaos, to make meaning out of the objective realm. The priests of religion soothe the need of control over the world of the unknown whether the unknown be nature or disease or death. After a populace loses faith in their religious leaders they turn to the scientists, the doctors, the governors to control the realms that they cannot, to have control over those forces unknown to them. But this too is the illusion of control. Scientists do not have control over the climate, doctors can kill or cut out cancer, but cannot cure it, the government does not have the knowledge or capacity to prevent economic collapse, the police are not capable of stopping the flow of narcotics and bureaucrats will not end poverty. And yet in the state we trust. This is the illusion of control.