Their first idea was—force.
Kick the mule—and rule.
An institution, an armed guard, was, therefore, promptly organized for holding down the slaves, the “lower class,” by force,—to hold the toilers, as it were, by the wrists. But an armed guard was expensive, and it was expensive simply because one armed guard could not hold many slaves to their tasks—by force. Now, the ancient slave-holding ruling class, like the modern capitalist ruling class, were, of course, eager to “reduce expenses and increase efficiency.” Thus the rulers had another idea, a big bright idea. Mark well the masters.
Their second idea was—fraud.
Fool the mule—and rule.
The brilliant idea of using fraud in ruling slaves, that is, in ruling the working class, was simply this: to have an unarmed guard teach the human horse to “stand hitched,” as it were, or, rather, to work like a trained horse without requiring an armed driver to whip him, to force him to his tasks. This unarmed guard was to hold the workers to their tasks by getting a grip on their minds, on their brains, rather than on their wrists.
This was more “refined.”
This was also much cheaper. This method has always been cheaper. It is cheaper for this reason: One unarmed deceiver acting as a guard by holding the mind, the brain, of the workers, can hold to their tasks hundreds of times as many as one armed guard can hold by force. This was a most happy idea—for the ruling class.
A new era opened.
The ruler smiled at the deceiver. The deceiver smiled at the ruler. They understood—each other, and agreed upon “the best interests of society.”