Simmering panic makes you incredibly easy to manipulate because a terrified person does not ask questions; instead, they seek a saviour. They just want to feel safe. When you feel threatened, your biological instinct is to find the biggest, strongest authority figure in the room and hide behind them. You will gladly surrender your freedom, critical thinking, and bodily autonomy for the illusion of safety.

It’s like we are all walking around wearing a virtual reality headset programmed by someone else—like a corporation selling anti-anxiety medication. That’s a great image if the screen inside the headset only shows monsters, threats, and terminal diseases. You’d spend your entire life running, panicking, and begging the programmer for protection. You never stop to question the screen, do you?

But what if you just reach up and take the ...