They’re Not Fighting You—They’re Distracting You: How State Power Thrives on Division and Manufactured Crisis

Crisis Is the Strategy—Not the Problem It’s not incompetence, or a series of unfortunate events. It’s the operating system of modern governance. For example, analysts count around 90 national emergencies declared in the United States since 1976, many of which are still periodically renewed and provide expanded executive powers beyond ordinary legislative processes. This ongoing pattern illustrates a political power play for distraction, where repeated crisis declarations shift public focus from deeper structural issues while broad authorities accumulate in the executive branch. The state’s power is not undermined by crisis—it feeds on it. As Michael Matulef accurately describes in his recent Mises Wire piece, the state doesn't merely exploit chaos—it manufactures it. And when society fractures into ideological tribes, when…