“Those who are known as benevolent rulers and wise kings are possessed of a heart deeply motivated by benevolence. Night and day their compassionate wisdom extends to the lowest commoner in the most distant corner of the land, not to mention those within their own families. At first, they regulate luxury and use caution in the disbursement of the nation’s expenditures. When luxury expenditures are heavy, and when expenses are heavy, tyrannical government is favored. Invariably such a government covetously plunders the people. When the people are plundered, they resent and hate, and when a country is hated that country will surely fall.”

— The Zen Master Hakuin, Hebichigo I

We may usefully note that when a nation’s people are plundered for the sake of luxury and extravagance, their anger and hatred can be easily ‘managed’ by an evil government through media and propaganda, to the end that they will become subject to egregious misdirection. Enemies will be seen where there are none, and these largely invented enemies will redirect the anger and despair that would otherwise be directed at the government and its hidden puppeteers, all of whom are profiting catastrophically from the abuse and suffering of the nation’s peoples.