I don’t agree with the premise that society is built around these principles, but some interesting ideas here, and it certainly some areas of society that I find baffling.

Why Are Americans So Easy to Manipulate?

Alfie Kohn, in Punished by Rewards (1993), documents with copious research how behavior modification works best on dependent, powerless, infantilized, bored, and institutionalized people. And so for authorities who get a buzz from controlling others, this creates a terrifying incentive to construct a society that creates dependent, powerless, infantilized, bored, and institutionalized people.