When mass changes occur quickly, they are easily observable. Slower alterations, especially those that happen over several generations, are misinterpreted as “natural evolutions.” Time itself is used by the Establishment as a mechanism of control, especially when traditions are broken and grassroots institutional memory become discontinuous.
A common example used to illustrate incrementalization is the metaphor of the boiling frog, which is used to explain the notion of creeping normalcy. Another way of presenting this concept is with the slippery slope argument (which unfortunately can suffer as an informal fallacy if any link in the chain of asserted causations are not empirically proven). The core idea of incrementalization is that the Establishment gradually becomes more tyrannical over succeeding generations, all the while breaking down family units, as well as the stability of long-term relationships (both platonic and romantic), so that any resistance will be diffused and thus rendered ineffectual since it experiences stunted growth before prematurely expiring (this repeatedly happens in cycles; the rise and fall of pseudo-revolutions, so to speak).
Socio–political engineering is an essential incrementalization technique. Through the coercive power of government, special interests can force innocent people to either comply with their threats or suffer punishment through enforcement. Taxation, regulation of free-market companies while granting privileges to corporations, so-called “social (child welfare) workers,” public school indoctrination, and welfare dependency are all examples of how the State, through codified threats of violence (that the mainline public erroneously thinks of as “the law”), significantly alters human behavior to the point where such manipulations, given enough time, are taken as a given.
Baby-boomers are the consequence of the massive growth of statism, as evidenced by the conclusion of the Second World War, the establishment of the United Nations, and the emergence of globalization. Generation X sanctioned Big Government, combining the vices of both the warfare and the welfare state. Generation Y is largely composed of anti-statists of various flavors, but their attempts to remedy our overall situation suffer from devastating ineffectiveness due to both the generational gap and their lack of understanding of history (since to them, tyranny is normal).
Even political dissidents are not totally immune from the effects of incrementalization. Most dissidents suffer from the common problem of having such a specific encapsulated focus that they become narrow-minded and neglect the big picture. Consider both the single-issue activists who inadvertently cause division amongst themselves as well as the various dissident factions who all bitch-slap each other pretty regularly. Overcoming this requires dissidents to cross the proverbial “point of no return” by entering into a “state of Nature.” Until such time this happens, dissident activity will be about as effective as pissing in the wind, for each new influx of eager activists has demonstratively slid any sort of real advancement for the cause of Liberty backwards, typically by advocating for methods that necessarily entail working within the system (such as by voting or writing your congresscritter).
The State really hates stable long-term relationships, regardless of whether that is expressed in terms of platonic friendships, romantic couples, or entire familial units. What the special interests, and their puppet governments, absolutely can’t stand are (for lack of a better sounding term) tribes of humans with a molecular level bond of trust. Tribes who posses bonds of genuine loyalty will protectively surround one of their own individual members who happens to be singled out for persecution by the State; such behavior testifies to the willingness of people to overtly resist the government.
Documenting the misdeeds of government over several generations is required if the slippery slope is to be a cogent argument instead of a logical fallacy. The next step is to present the empirical evidence to the mass population, but especially to one’s own family and friends. The results will demonstrate who is predisposed towards resisting tyrants and who would prefer instead to serve as pro bono government apologists. Nothing less than this will indicate the mentalities of the people towards the Establishment.
The Last Bastille 