How to keep people in control

(Tonny Benn) - I think democracy is the most revolutionary thing in the world, far more revolutionary than socialist ideas or anybody else's ideas. If you have power you use it to meet the needs of you and your community. And this idea of choice which capital talks about all the time, you got to have a choice, choice depends on the freedom to choose. And if you're shackled with debt you don't have a freedom to choose.
(Michael Moore) - It seems that it benefits the system if the average working person is shackled with debt.
(Tonny Benn) - Yeah. The people in debt become hopeless and hopeless people don't vote. See they say that everyone should vote but I think if the poor in Britain or the United States turned out and voted for people who represented their interests it would be a real democratic revolution. So they don't want it to happen. So they're keeping people hopeless and pessimistic. See I think there are two ways in which people are controlled. First of all, frighten people. And secondly demoralise them. An educated, healthy and confident nation is harder to govern. And I think there's an element in the thinking of some people, we don't want people to be educated, healthy and confident because they will get out of control. The top 1% of the world's population own 80% of the world's wealth. It's incredible that people put up with it, but they're poor, they're demoralised, they're frightened. And therefore they think "perhaps the safest thing to do is to take orders and hope for the best".

Sicko, by Michael Moore.