Since last century, slavery has become illegal in much of the world. But the crafty bunch that they are, aspiring slave owners have long developed a cunning method to own slaves: By instilling the slave mentality into the people.

What is the slave mentality?

If the people believe they are helpless children who can’t live without you, they would sacrifice their freedom and bow at your feet.

Make the people feel like helpless children

Children are dependent upon their parents for the simple fact that they don’t know how to do things. “Mom, I’m hungry.” “Dad, buy me that toy.”

In order for the people to feel like helpless children who can’t live without you, make every government process and procedure as difficult as possible.

So they would come begging, “Please help, I don’t know how to do it.”

Or they might come bearing a nice basket full of goodies, all bowing and smiling, “Nai-tan krub, please help.” See? They would even pay for their own slavery.

To instill the slave mentality is to create dependency. But be careful, children are naughty these days, they might come yelling:

“Where’s my 5,000 baht!!!”

The tried and true method of divide and conquer

These days, children become “bad” quite easily.

They are tempted by sinful ideals such as human rights, civil liberty and equality under the law. So they start doing evil acts such as questioning your authority and even talking back to you. They would even stage protests on university campuses.

Here’s how you deal with them: monopolize the language and weave a tale as old as time, the favorite theme of any human story: good versus evil.

Take the word “good” and define it as: Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha.

Take the world “bad” and define it as: Thanathorn Jungrungruangkit.

Hence, if you support Prayut the Good, you are good children. However, if you support Thanathorn the Bad, you are naughty children. Therefore, if Thanathorn wins an election, the Thai civilization as we know it would collapse.

Then, let the two groups of children fight against each other, and as long as they are too busy fighting each other, they would never think to unite and fight against you.

If a Spartacus should rise among them, you should charge him with a crime of applying to become a member of parliament while having shares in a media company that once upon a time used to own a celebrity gossip magazine.

Your “good” children will actually take this charge very seriously.

Make the people feel like they owe you

The concepts of “servant of the people” and “the people’s tax is your salary,” let’s ignore them.

If the people actually realize they are the bosses, this slave mentality trick isn’t going to work. Instead, make them feel like you are the benevolent master, and whatever they have in life, they owe it to you and should be thankful to you.

For example, if the people pay you 29 million baht in tax, keep 28 million baht and spread a million baht among them. But don’t forget, put a stamp on the envelop to make sure they know who gives this to them.

Not only would they feel gratitude, they would feel indebted to you. They would believe they owe you. They would give you their loyalty. They would vote for you.

When you need them to come out to the streets and wreak havoc, they would go crazy for you.

Keep the people entertained

The stuff you have on television, those shows, pop stars and soap operas? Great job. Keep doing it. As long as the children are entertained, they are none the wiser.

Even Emperor Caligula knew to give the people the extravagance and excitement of blood and sand in the coliseum. It’s simply to keep the people occupied and happy. In the words of Maximus Decimus Meridius:

“Are you not entertained?”

Ignorance, as they say, is bliss. They would never rise up against you, if they are emotionally preoccupied and intellectually challenged.

Keep the children in the cave

Simply put: The education system? Keep it. Don’t ever change it.

Create a climate of fear

You have the law in your hand: use it, abuse it, threaten the people with it.

For example, every time you go on television to make an announcement about something, always remind the people about “national security, loyalty, unity and fake news,” with the proverbial “punishable by law.”

In olden days, slave masters used the whip to keep slaves in line. In modern times, a prison term of three to 15 years keeps the people cowed in fear. .

Make sure the people accept their inferiority

This is great stuff. Genius, in fact.

As long as the people adhere to the social hierarchy, that there’s such a thing as “poo-yai” (the superior) and “poo-noi” (the inferior), your slave plantation is secured. Ingrain it into the psyche. When the people use these terms and practice the concept in their daily lives, that’s exactly how a slave mentality is weaved.

Think about it, getting the people to accept that they are inferior to others, that is just deliciously diabolical.

Make them crawl

Enough said.