We the (little) people are the focus of government’s and religion’s attention because we are the source of their power. We are the believers, the tithers, the voters, the tax payers, the craftsmen and the consumers, the soldiers & police men, the priests & the politicians. The elites in power depend on us to carry out their bidding because their numbers are small but our numbers are large.
They misinform us, they threaten us, and they buy us. They control us because they can and do play to our weaknesses. We give them our trust because it’s the easiest thing to do. Then they misuse it. Generally not enough to cause a revolution, but enough to maintain and increase their power at our expense.
They are organized and we are not. And they control the resources and the flow of information. This situation is less so in democracies but the rule in religious societies and autocratic nations.
After I wrote this article I came across this video of the recently killed Russian dissident Alexey Navalny who alludes to this situation in a video on cnn: See message Navalny recorded for Russian people if he was killed where he says “We [the little people] don’t realize how strong we actually are [the power we have].”