It started a long time ago. It started when men realised they could rule other men. They could bend them to their will, break them, change them.

It started with disciples. Followers.

It started with kings.

Now: we have a world in which many people believe themselves to be free, believe their thoughts to be their own. They're unwilling to question the world they see about themselves. Concepts like "wealth" and "success" have become universal "truths" - abstract nouns, like love and hope. They are untouchable.

You can't argue with a £20 note, right?

But it's just an IOU.

Of course, if a lot of people rejected money as a concept it would lose its "value". If MOST people rejected money, capitalism would crumble. We can see this in the recession. Just a little taster. People stop buying, people lose their jobs and therefore spend less money, and... it CAN happen. Money can end.

Is this the worst thing that could occur? The collapse of the financial system, the destruction of capitalism?

Or would it liberate people, liberate thought, allow for a truly egalitarian society in which everyone lives as equals? No crime, no competition, no aggression.

But the government doesn't want that. The bankers don't want that. The media-lords don't want that. They'd lose their power, their wealth, their status. They would be relegated to the status of human being, as worthy as the men and women who formerly took out their bins, cleaned their houses, served them in their favourite fast food joints.

So they create a system of control.

Remember: it didn't start with Neo-Labour, or Thatcher's Tories, or the Whigs, or Simon de Montfort.

The rulers are, of course, constantly making adjustments to the prison they've built for our minds. Perhaps the best way to describe this is through allegory.

A fisherman goes out every day to trap fish in his net. The net holds most of the fish but isn't very well constructed: some fish swim through the holes. Eventually it starts to fray and wear. The fisherman decides to construct a firmer net, with smaller holes. His son takes up the family business, and follows suit. Again, he weaves a stronger net, and less fish escape. Eventually, after several generations, the fisherman's descendant has weaved a net so fine, so strong and so large that no fish can escape at all. And yet the net is invisible, and the fish are spread out across such a wide area that after a while they start to believe that they are swimming in the open sea, and are not held or restricted in any way.

The prison grows stronger and stronger, until one day there will be no dissidents, no unique thought, no resistance.

Or we could wake up now. Challenge everything. Think for ourselves. Save ourselves.