Society Is Built With Manufactured Suffering

Society has mastered the art of creating problems where none exist — manufacturing suffering to keep people obedient, distracted, and endlessly dependent. From fake urgencies in work and education to invented insecurities in health, beauty, and status, every system profits when you are anxious, exhausted, and chasing their solutions. This essay takes you deep into how this machinery works in everyday life, and how you can step out of it without losing yourself.

1. Introduction – From Natural Pain to Manufactured Suffering

Pain by itself is not evil. Hunger, illness, death, heartbreak – these are part of nature. Every species has them. But the modern human world has gone far beyond nature’s share.

Now, pain is not just endured – it is designed.

Governments design it to keep you dependent.

Businesses design it to keep you buying.

Religions design it to keep you hoping.

Schools design it to keep you competing.

You are not just living in a world with suffering.

You are living inside a machine that needs suffering to work – and when natural suffering is too little, it manufactures more.

In India, this is visible everywhere. Even in years when rains are good, onions are hoarded so prices jump from ₹20/kg to ₹120/kg. Even when we have enough electricity generation, “power cuts” are done in some regions to keep the monopoly strong. Even when we have free education in government schools, fear of “falling behind” is planted so parents pay ₹2–5 lakh a year for private tuition.

This is not an accident. It is the blueprint.

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2. The Ancient Blueprint – Controlling through Fear and Need

Manufactured suffering is not new. It is only more organised now. In ancient India, kings taxed farmers not just in famine years but also in abundance. Temples in kingdoms like Vijayanagara were not just places of worship but treasuries – storing gold given by fearful citizens hoping to escape divine punishment.

The British refined this into an art. The Permanent Settlement of Bengal forced peasants to pay fixed land tax even during drought years. If they could not pay, their land was seized – forcing them into bonded labour. This was deliberate economic pain, not an accident of nature.

Globally, the same pattern existed. Roman emperors used “barbarian threat” stories to justify huge military spending and keep citizens obedient. Chinese dynasties created artificial grain scarcity by storing harvest in state granaries and releasing it slowly.

The idea is timeless: if people are in fear or need, they will obey.

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3. Manufactured Suffering in the Economy

The economy is the biggest factory of manufactured pain. Without it, many industries would collapse overnight.

3.1 Agriculture – Starving in a Land of Plenty

India produces more than enough grain to feed all its people, yet millions go hungry. Why?

Hoarding: Traders in Maharashtra have repeatedly held back onions, letting them rot in storage to push prices sky-high.

Export Priority: In 2022, wheat was exported to earn foreign currency even when domestic prices rose, making chapati costlier for the poor.

Middlemen Control: Farmers get ₹8/kg for tomatoes, city consumers pay ₹60/kg – the gap is manufactured.

Universal parallel: In the US, milk is poured into drains during surplus years to keep prices high. The problem is not production – it’s deliberate shortage.

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3.2 Real Estate – The Price of a Roof

Housing should be a basic human need, but in India, it’s turned into a generational debt trap.

Artificial scarcity: Builders hold unsold flats for years to keep prices from falling.

Policy manipulation: Land in urban areas is kept under “special zone” classifications to limit supply.

Speculation: Investors buy properties only to leave them empty, pushing up rates for actual residents.

In cities like Bengaluru, lakhs of flats remain empty while lakhs of workers live in cramped, overpriced rentals. This is not a housing shortage – it’s a housing scam.

Universal parallel: In Hong Kong, thousands of “ghost apartments” are owned by investors purely to manipulate prices.

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3.3 Energy – Darkness in a Power-Surplus Nation

India today produces more electricity than it uses, yet many areas face power cuts.

Load shedding in Madhya Pradesh and Bihar is often done even when there’s no shortage, to justify future tariff hikes.

Fuel price politics: Petrol prices stay high even when crude oil prices fall globally – because high fuel prices feed tax revenue.

Delayed renewables: Rooftop solar could cut household power bills by 70%, but is kept slow through paperwork and “net metering” restrictions.

Universal parallel: In oil-rich Nigeria, fuel shortages are common because supply is artificially choked to benefit black market sellers.

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3.4 Consumer Goods – Selling You Your Own Needs Back

Clean water, fresh food, simple clothes – these are not luxuries, but now they are sold at premium rates because free or low-cost options are made unsafe or inconvenient.

Packaged water dominates because municipal supply is left polluted in many cities.

Organic food is expensive because the “normal” food is deliberately loaded with chemicals.

Simple cotton clothes are overpriced because textile exports take priority over domestic quality supply.

Universal parallel: Bottled water sales in the US took off only after public messaging claimed tap water “might be unsafe,” even when it was fine in many places.

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4. Manufactured Suffering in Politics

Politics without suffering is like a shop without customers.

If people felt secure, united, and content, the entire business model of elections would collapse.

So the political machine – in India and worldwide – works to keep certain fires burning, even starting new ones when the old ones die.

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4.1 Manufactured Threats

In India, fear is one of the most powerful campaign tools. It doesn’t even have to be real.

Common methods:

Imaginary invasion: Whispers of “Pakistan’s next attack” just before elections.

Exaggerated danger: A small local protest is portrayed as a “nationwide security threat” on TV channels.

Economic fear: Claiming the economy will collapse if “the other party” comes to power.

Indian example: In 2019, the Pulwama attack and Balakot airstrikes became central election talking points, dominating headlines for weeks. While the incident was real, the scale of fear was politically amplified.

Universal parallel: In the US, “war on terror” messaging after 9/11 became a permanent political tool, even in years when no major attacks happened.

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4.2 Engineered Identity Divides

Caste, religion, and language differences have always existed, but political strategies keep them raw and bleeding.

Caste-based promises: Reservation debates are kept unresolved so each group stays insecure.

Religious suspicion: Small disputes over temples, mosques, or processions are inflated into national-level issues.

Language politics: Hindi imposition fears in Tamil Nadu, Marathi pride in Maharashtra – stirred up when politically useful.

Indian example: In 2020, the Delhi riots broke out after weeks of tension over the Citizenship Amendment Act. The unrest had a political timetable, not just a social trigger.

Universal parallel: In Rwanda, colonial powers classified people as “Hutu” or “Tutsi” and fuelled division for control – decades later, local politics still draws from that division.

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4.3 Crisis Creation Before Elections

An old but effective trick: if there’s no crisis before voting, create one.

Sudden policy moves: The 2016 demonetisation in India caused massive disruption – cash shortages, job losses – but became a rallying point for “fighting black money.”

Law-and-order theatre: Crackdowns on certain groups just before elections to appear tough.

Subsidy waves: Months before polls, sudden freebie announcements – which disappear after results.

Indian example: Just before state elections, fuel prices often drop, only to rise again after the results.

Universal parallel: In Argentina, last-minute subsidies and tax breaks appear in election season, regardless of the country’s debt situation.

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4.4 The Political–Media Handshake

Politics alone cannot manufacture suffering at scale – it needs media to keep the pain visible.

Selective coverage: Some farmer protests get wall-to-wall coverage, others are ignored depending on political benefit.

Fear as entertainment: Crime stories are highlighted not to warn people, but to make them feel constantly unsafe.

Economic panic cycles: Stock market dips are reported like earthquakes, making small investors anxious and reactive.

Indian example: The 2020 migrant worker crisis during lockdown became a prime-time ratings war – more about political blame than solutions.

Universal parallel: In the UK, Brexit campaigns used constant “economic doom” headlines to sway public mood.

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5. Manufactured Suffering in Religion

Religion in its pure form can be a source of peace, ethics, and community. But organised religion – the institutional kind – cannot survive on peace alone. It survives on fear, guilt, and promises.

If people felt spiritually secure, healthy, and morally steady without outside help, temples, churches, mosques, and ashrams would lose their economic and political muscle.

So they keep pain alive – not just in your life, but in your imagination.

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5.1 Selling Solutions to Problems They Plant

One of the oldest strategies in Indian religion is to first tell you what could go wrong – and then sell you the cure.

“If you don’t do this puja, your business will fail.”

“If this homa is skipped, your daughter’s marriage will be delayed.”

“If you don’t fast on this day, your ancestors will be angry.”

Indian example: The Navagraha Shanti ritual industry thrives on the fear that planetary positions are causing your suffering. The “remedies” are often priced based on your desperation.

Universal parallel: In medieval Europe, the Catholic Church sold “indulgences” – payments to reduce time in purgatory after death. The fear of eternal suffering kept the system rich.

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5.2 Temple Economics – The Silent Fortune

Indian temples are not just spiritual spaces; they are wealth vaults.

Tirupati Balaji receives donations of over ₹3,000 crore a year.

Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Kerala has gold reserves worth billions of dollars.

Smaller shrines across the country pull in crores during festival seasons.

This money is often not used for ending suffering in any systemic way. Instead, it is reinvested into bigger festivals, larger buildings, more gold plating – keeping the cycle of devotion and donation alive.

Universal parallel: Mega-churches in the US run multi-million-dollar budgets, with pastors flying private jets while preaching humility.

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5.3 Divine Punishment Narratives

The idea that suffering is a result of divine anger keeps people obedient.

A drought? “We didn’t perform the right rituals.”

A child falling sick? “An ancestor’s spirit is unhappy.”

Job loss? “You missed your prayers.”

Indian example: In rural Maharashtra, some villages still perform animal sacrifices during drought, believing it will bring rain – a costly ritual for already poor farmers.

Universal parallel: In ancient Greece, poor harvests were blamed on not pleasing the gods, leading to costly offerings to temples.

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5.4 The Godman Industry

When personal suffering is high, people look for a living “solution provider” – the godman.

They promise healing from disease, marriages for children, exam success.

They create dependency – followers return again and again for “blessings.”

When natural suffering drops, godmen shift focus to manufactured threats like “negative energy,” “bad karma from past lives,” or “black magic attacks.”

Indian example: The ashrams of certain self-styled gurus run multi-crore empires selling everything from ayurvedic toothpaste to “energised” drinking water – all priced much higher than normal.

Universal parallel: In Africa, some pastors sell “miracle water” to cure HIV, while in the US, televangelists sell “holy oil” for financial blessings.

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5.5 The Political–Religious Handshake

Religion and politics work hand in hand to maintain suffering.

Politicians need temples, mosques, and churches to mobilise voters.

Religious leaders need political protection to run their empires without scrutiny.

Indian example: The Ayodhya Ram Mandir movement was not just about faith – it was a political engine for decades, keeping one of the nation’s deepest religious wounds open until it could be “resolved” at a politically advantageous time.

Universal parallel: In Iran, the clerical establishment and political elite maintain each other’s authority through religious law enforcement and state power.

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6. Manufactured Suffering in Medicine

Health should be about prevention, cure, and well-being.

But in practice, medicine – particularly modern corporate healthcare – often works like a subscription service.

You keep paying, not to get rid of the problem forever, but to keep it “under control” just enough so you can still function and keep paying.

In India and globally, this is not a hidden flaw. It’s the core design.

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6.1 Lifelong Treatment Models

The biggest money-maker in medicine is not curing you – it’s keeping you as a lifelong customer.

Diabetes: In most cases, Type 2 diabetes can be reversed through diet, fasting, and exercise. Yet the focus is on permanent medication and insulin.

BP: High blood pressure can often be controlled without pills, but tablets are given “for life” after a single reading.

Cholesterol: Statin prescriptions continue for decades even in borderline cases, with little review.

Indian example: In urban India, it’s common for corporate hospitals to put patients on multiple “preventive” medicines that they do not actually need, ensuring a monthly income stream.

Universal parallel: In the US, the opioid crisis began with painkillers prescribed “long-term” for manageable pain, creating dependency instead of healing.

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6.2 New Diseases and Lifestyle Disorders

When natural illness is not enough, the system creates new ones – or redefines normal states as illnesses.

Vitamin deficiencies: Blood test ranges are narrowed so more people “fail” and need supplements.

Mental health inflation: Stress becomes “disorder,” shyness becomes “social anxiety,” normal childhood behaviour becomes “ADHD.”

Pre-diabetes: Instead of fixing lifestyle, people are told to start medication “just in case.”

Indian example: The sudden boom in “vitamin D deficiency” diagnosis around 2015 led to a massive rise in supplement sales, even though sun exposure could fix it for free.

Universal parallel: In Japan, “restless legs syndrome” was barely known until a drug was developed for it – then awareness campaigns turned it into a market.

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6.3 Hospital Billing and Medical Debt

In India, a hospital stay is not just about healing – it’s about how much can be billed before you leave.

Unnecessary tests: MRI scans for minor headaches, full-body scans for small injuries.

Extended admissions: Patients kept in ICU longer than needed.

Premium charges: For “deluxe” rooms that are just slightly bigger than standard ones.

Indian example: In 2021, during the COVID-19 second wave, many private hospitals charged lakhs for basic oxygen support – exploiting fear in a crisis.

Universal parallel: In the US, a single dose of a drug can be billed at hundreds of dollars even if it costs a few cents to produce.

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6.4 Drug–Doctor–Diagnostic Nexus

Doctors, pharma companies, and diagnostic labs often operate as a closed loop.

Pharma reps push expensive branded drugs over cheaper generics.

Labs offer commissions for every test a doctor orders.

Conferences and “medical trips” are sponsored to encourage loyalty.

Indian example: The Medical Council of India has repeatedly flagged the issue of pharma-sponsored foreign trips for doctors who prescribe certain brands.

Universal parallel: In Europe, “continuing medical education” events are often funded by drug companies – turning learning into marketing.

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6.5 Public Health Neglect to Boost Private Business

When the government underfunds public healthcare, people are forced into private hospitals.

Poor maintenance in government hospitals keeps middle-class patients away.

Long waiting times push patients toward paid services.

Shortage of medicines makes people buy from private pharmacies.

Indian example: AIIMS Delhi remains overloaded and underfunded while private hospitals in the same city charge ₹50,000 for a single night in ICU.

Universal parallel: In many African countries, public hospitals are so under-resourced that even nurses advise patients to go to private clinics – often owned by the same doctors who work in the public system.

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7. Manufactured Suffering in Education

The natural state (what learning should feel like)

Learning is curiosity, play, practice and steady mastery. Children learn by doing, by asking, by making small public mistakes and trying again. In a healthy system, school feeds curiosity, community skills and dignity — not fear.

The intervention that manufactures suffering

Education today turns natural learning into a high-stakes machine by raising the price of success and concentrating rewards into a tiny gate:

Standardised, high-stakes entrance tests (IIT‑JEE, NEET, SSC, state exam culture).

Coaching factories that convert childhood into exam preparation (Kota, Mukherjee Nagar, parts of Hyderabad/Pune).

Early selection and streaming — forcing 12‑year‑olds to choose life paths.

Credential inflation — more and more degrees are demanded for basic jobs.

Rote-and-rank schooling that values marks over understanding.

Private tuition culture: schools move to shallow coverage and parents pay extra for learning.

Edtech subscriptions that gamify tests and charge monthly fees for basic literacy or math practice.

Who gains

Owners of coaching centres, hostels, textbooks and test-prep apps.

Private schools that keep fees high by promising “better results.”

Real estate and businesses around coaching hubs (PGs, messes, transport).

Exam-centre businesses and rent-seekers who profit from scarcity of seats.

Media and celebrity tutors who sell miracle formulas.

Indian examples (short, factual, humane)

Kota’s coaching economy turns thousands of teenagers into full-time test workers; whole businesses — hostels, food, tuition — exist around exam seasons.

NEET and JEE cycles create a coaching treadmill where passing a test becomes the definition of a child’s worth.

The coaching–school nexus: many private schools teach to the test, then sell “remedial” coaching at extra cost.

CBSE/board rank culture turns marks into public reputation — driving parents to spend heavily on tuition from early grades.

Universal parallels

China’s gaokao cram schools and Japan’s juku are “shadow education” — the same global pattern: families pay to gain advantage in a zero-sum selection system.

In the US, SAT/ACT test-prep and college‑admissions coaching create similar industries; for‑profit colleges and expensive admissions counseling are the counterparts.

How the cycle reproduces itself

Parents who suffered coaching pressure their children the same way.

Successful coaching alumni become the next set of coaches.

Limited seats (real or manufactured) keep demand artificially high.

Schools and exam boards preserve “rigour” by keeping stakes high — it justifies testing businesses.

What would change if manufactured suffering ended

Coaching towns would shrink; many small businesses would need new customers.

Tuition markets and exam‑prep apps would lose monopoly revenue.

Definitions of success would broaden: skills, portfolios, apprenticeships would gain value.

Short‑term disruption: families and industries that depend on the exam treadmill would feel loss — but society would gain calmer childhoods, broader talent use, and more real skills.

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8. When Relief Threatens the System — How It Restores Pain

When a real solution appears, the machinery that profits from pain does not shrug and disappear. It pushes back. Relief is tolerated only in doses and then corrected so the old order returns.

How the system restores pain:

Hoarding and supply shocks. If prices fall or supply looks abundant, traders hold stock back. In India, onion hoarding and similar behaviour around perishable crops regularly pushes prices up again.

Policy reversal and partial relief. Governments give a small, visible relief (a subsidy, a camp, a vaccine drive) that eases pressure — then withdraw or underfund follow-up, so the long-term problem persists.

Re-labelling success as partial. A victory (polio, say) is reframed as “we need new vigilance,” which keeps funds and programs running.

New crisis, same actors. If one fear dies, the media–politics complex finds or magnifies another — migration, law-and-order scares, market crashes.

Regulatory capture. If public services start working, private players lobby rules to reintroduce scarcity: limits on net-metering for rooftop solar, opaque licensing for clinics, restrictive land-use rules to “preserve value.”

Moral panic and scapegoating. Relief is presented as dangerous or immoral (welfare makes people lazy; free education lowers standards), so public opinion is shifted back toward “controlled pain.”

Indian examples (patterns, not polemics): farmers celebrate a good harvest and prices tank locally — middlemen and traders then use storage and transport rules to choke supply; a state expands free primary health access and the private clinics push for “quality concerns” to justify paid services; when a public exam seat increases, parallel private tests grow to re-establish scarcity.

Universal pattern: democracy or markets that briefly offer abundance tend to create counter-mechanisms that re-establish scarcity — because powerful groups lose influence if abundance lasts.

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9. The Personal Cost of Not Participating

Refusing to feed the machine is possible, but it is not free. The state and markets punish exit in quiet ways.

Common costs:

Social pressure and shame. Families label those who reject conventional paths as lazy or shameful. Parents who don’t push kids into coaching are judged negligent.

Economic penalties. Living simply often means lower pay or unstable access to credit and benefits tied to formal employment.

Isolation. People who opt out of status games may lose social networks built around consumption and career.

Institutional blockages. Without the right degrees or certifications, doors remain closed; the credential system punishes alternative routes.

Real-world feel (India): a young man who leaves a corporate job to farm faces family alarm, local gossip, hard bank credit rules, and the subtle loss of marriage prospects in conservative circles. A family that refuses expensive wedding norms is treated as eccentric and struggles to find social acceptance.

But the flip side matters: those who step out often gain time, dignity, health, and sometimes a small local power — they become seeds of a different world. The cost is immediate; the gain is often quiet and slow.

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10. Can We Build a Low-Suffering Society?

Short answer: Yes — at small scale, already happening; at large scale, very hard but not impossible. It needs design, politics, and cultural shifts.

What works (practical building blocks):

1. De-commodify basics. Treat water, primary food, basic healthcare, and primary schooling as public goods — well-funded, well-run, free at point of use.

2. Break monopolies and speculation. Tax vacant housing, curb land speculation, regulate commodities trading that incentivises hoarding.

3. Public-quality services. Invest in teachers, nurses, and public hospitals so the poor don’t rely on private pain industries. Good public services remove the market for manufactured suffering.

4. Plural pathways for success. Value apprenticeships, local craft, co-ops, vocational colleges as equal to elite degrees. Spread opportunity, reduce zero-sum tests.

5. Regulate predatory industries. Bring limits to coaching, medical overbilling, predatory loans, and misleading advertising.

6. Local economy and co-operatives. Support farmer-producer orgs, worker co-ops, urban community markets to reduce middlemen extraction.

7. Social narrative change. Celebrate repair, craft, simplicity, and peaceful lives publicly — films, leaders, and textbooks can change what people admire.

8. Safety nets and measured basic incomes. Where political will allows, unconditional support blunts the leverage of markets that prey on fear.

Indian examples of hope (patterns): cooperative dairy (Amul-style) models showing how producers capture value; strong public-health drives that reduce disease when properly funded; municipalities that run free libraries, public parks, and community learning centres that keep youth engaged without coaching.

Why scale breaks peace — and how to handle it:

Large-scale change threatens entrenched interests. Expect resistance.

Use phased pilots, spread wins as local stories, and build coalitions across farmers, workers, teachers, and citizens. Political pressure comes from organised voters, so build democratic pressure slowly.

A simple blueprint to start:

Make primary schools truly good in 100 districts.

Make 10 district hospitals reliably free and functional.

Legally cap or tax high-frequency speculative property purchases.

Ban commercial advertising in primary schools and hospitals.

Small, visible wins change beliefs. Belief change lowers demand for manufactured suffering.

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11. Conclusion — The Choice in Front of Us

Society as we know it thrives on suffering it can sell, manage, and renew. That is the blunt truth. But it is not an eternal law. It is a human design — and like all designs, it can be re-made.

You have two clear paths in everyday life:

Feed the machinery. Keep buying the spectacles of fear, the coaching, the quick medical fixes, the status rituals. The system will hum along.

Withdraw your consent. Refuse unnecessary pain, build local alternatives, support public goods and co-ops, and live with a smaller but clearer dignity.

If enough people choose the second path, the machine does not collapse into chaos — it shrinks into a quieter, saner society. That is not disaster; it is repair.

.end.

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