Even more basic, the easy explanation for what's going on is that almost all humans are simply poorly functioning mammals. So they involuntarily turn into puppets for their 'superiors', who run them like a herd of cattle.

This is in contrast to the older days, when the great majority of people were only alive through their own abilities. When the next CME hits us, we're going straight back to those days where the only food available was food YOU produced. (better have a manual option to extract water from your well...)