Power is rarely preserved by force alone. It is preserved through language.
Words like security, innovation, efficiency, and stability are used to justify actions that concentrate power and limit choice. Once language is captured, resistance becomes harder to articulate.
Narrative capture works by reframing harm as necessity and consolidation as progress. It narrows the range of acceptable debate before policy is even discussed.
When people argue within captured language, outcomes are preselected.
This is why control of narrative precedes control of law. If a policy can be framed as inevitable, it no longer needs consent.
A society that loses control of its language loses control of its future.