The Illusion of Control

Part IV opens on a different axis than Part III. The crisis of trust traced what societies have lost in the way of shared understanding. The crisis of control traces what they have lost in the way of practical authority over the systems that increasingly shape the lives unfolding inside them. Chapter 9 examined the social consequences of the first loss, the slow shift from disputing to disengaging. This chapter examines a quieter loss that often runs alongside it. The loss of governance that goes unnoticed because the rituals of control remain in place even after the substance has drained out of them.