Ah, but when the government controls all information about what's happening outside, and convinced them that it's only through their efforts and their obedience that attacks on their own homes are held off...

[Pepper looks more than a little wry.]

It's not that people are ignorant. It's more that we are, by nature, made to be social, to seek out groups, and, once we're in them, to not try and upset things too much, especially if upset means suffering, both for you and your loved ones. Make it easier for people to toe your line than not, and be merciless in dealing with the ones who cross it and you can demoralize a population pretty effectively. It's... hideous, but it's not something I've never heard of, in my world's history.