Magic is the ability to make someone believe something that isn't true. It follows, then, that most great magicians are keen observers of human psychology and that magic routines are, at base, a skillfully arranged set of techniques for preying on our cognitive biases.

As impressive as the rabbit-from-hat illusions and the sleight-of-hand deceptions of the masters of stagecraft can be, however, these parlor tricks pale in comparison to the societal manipulations that are conducted by the masters of statecraft every day.

Case in point: martial law. I have long said that when martial law actually comes to the "free and democratic" West, people will be cheering it on. In case you didn't believe me, I present the phenomenon of the public cheering on the most egregious abuses of medical martial law over the past two years as evidence for my contention. All it took was a concerted campaign to get people to fear coronavirus, and suddenly the very same people who once denounced those warning of martial law as "conspiracy theory" were loudly applauding the jackbooted thugs of the COVID-1984 police state in their harassment of elderly women and innocent children and random citizens.

Yes, it's one thing to theorize about the Stockholm Syndrome that allows—in the memorable words of Aldous Huxley—"the controlling oligarchy who have always existed and presumably will always exist to get people to love their servitude." It's another thing to actually see it taking place.