Yeah, I know, it's a far-fetched, hard to prove claim. And yes, you're free to call it a conspiracy theory.
-eleman
I don't see it as either far fetched nor a conspiracy. I just see it as typical human behavior.
Those with an advantage wish to preserve their advantage.
Those in possession of something of value generally try to hold on to it - and ideally get more of it.
Humans generally prefer to associate with people that think and look much like themselves.
Humans generally prefer to do nice things for the people they like. And ignore, or do bad things, to those they don't.
The instinctive human responses to any threat are: Fight/Flight/Freeze.
Cooperation is not instinctive. Nor is morality. They are both learned behaviors subject to the interpretations of the community and the environment one grows up in.
So no need for fancy conspiracy theories. The West has it pretty good right now. Arguably better on the whole than any other society in human history all things being equal. And the West simply wants to keep it that way.
The problem lies in what may be considered an acceptable way to keep it so.
People have preferred approaches to problems based on previous experiences and successes. And they tend to repeat behaviors that have worked in the past - even when current realities indicate the old approaches are no longer workable.
People that are used to thinking in terms of police power and military responses tend to see people wearing uniforms and carrying guns as the optimal solution to otherwise insurmountable problems.
It's not always.
But try convincing somebody who believes in guns, and prisons, and all the other trappings of government coercion otherwise. Like Louis XIV so famously engraved on the barrels of his canons:
Ultima Ratio RegumBelieve it.
