Part of the reason that the government’s fear mongering is succeeding is because so many people are so ignorant, that it is easier for government to frighten people in submission.

Bovard’s line fits his long-running libertarian critique of state power: governments expand authority by amplifying threats and then presenting obedience as the price of safety. The quote argues that this strategy works best when citizens lack civic knowledge, historical memory, or media literacy—conditions that make it easier to accept alarming claims without demanding evidence or limits. “Submission” signals more than temporary compliance; it implies a habituation to emergency politics in which fear displaces deliberation and rights become negotiable. The remark also functions as a warning about democratic vulnerability: ignorance is not merely a private deficit but a public risk that can be exploited to normalize coercion.