When writing Science Fiction it behooves the writer to look at past historical records of ancient civilization, tales, writings and all the conspiracy theories of the ages. Now then there are many Conspiracy Theories out there, all of which use fear. Some of the "Fear” controls used to control civilizations are well known. There are also many events, which seem real at the time or are actual very real threats.
These fears include such things as; Y2K, 9-11, Nuclear War, Comet Impact, Bird Flu, International Terrorism, Domino Effect, etc. And these are a good place to start. If you have been observing present period human societies and civilizations you have seen these fears, which keep coming up every 10-years or so you may start to get rather cynical. You may start to believe these fears are incited merely, as ways to control the masses and the powers simply want more control and this "fear factor” is enabling those folks more power.
One cannot deny the appetite of human civilizations for sound and fury, as they need to bite into something to improve their life experience and give it meaning (innate characteristic).
When writing Sci Fi, one would want to use such conspiracy theory fears to set up a "what if...” scenario and then push it into the future, as they design a probable or possible future
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