Internal Enemies

1. Late cycles struggle to sustain cohesion without opposition. When external expansion slows and shared purpose erodes, attention turns inward. Difference begins to register as risk.

2. Internal enemies are not announced; they are assembled. The process begins in rhetoric, advances through policy, and solidifies in practice. Categories blur—citizen and suspect, neighbor and liability.

3. Surveillance expands under the promise of safety. Enforcement follows under the banner of prevention. Fear becomes a tool of organization rather than a condition to be addressed.

4. This process does not require malice to function. It requires only contraction. As legitimacy strains and resources tighten, authority seeks clarity through division.

5. Internal enemies are not discovered; they are produced. Once produced, they justify the very measures that required them, closing the loop that defines the late cycle.