People used to be free range and self-responsible. The ranchers perceived these mammals as a potentially exploitable resource, and began a program to domesticate and multiply them. Now they have vast herds under their control who would die without the ranchers, and it's given them enormous power and profits.
You are hopefully a stray outside of their metaphorical fencing, and are maintaining your survival skills separately from the ranch and the roving ranch hands.
Could be fleshed out more if you like, cell phones being superior to ear tags, prohibitions against non-ranch food sources, mandatory 'vaccine' injections of the herd stock, and the herd-mixing projects to optimize their results.
Yes, the "cattle and rancher" metaphor is just that; A metaphor. They're openly farming humans, folks, and most of their stock has no clue.
It will be so interesting to see who our new ranch manager will be.
Sector2 0 points 5 months ago
I suspect they're either behind or heavily supported the massive spike in human population that obviously would lead to our current conditions.