Humans are often extremely hard to control and throughout the ages leaders have used many methods to control the young and restless peanut gallery. For instance having a war was often an excellent way to get rid of some of the warrior class, which might cause a rebellion. Keeping the people amused in sports and entertainment is another way.
In fact through out civilization different tactics have been employed. Currently in the United States it seems our civilization and GDP has done so well that the masses are caught up in consumerism bliss and economically enslaved thru personal debt. Some of this is by design by controlling money flows and supply.
Other control methods are purely coincidental and are a matter of personal choice and purchasing power made possible by the efficiencies of a well-oiled machine and economic superiority brought forth by massive productivity. Self-induced control you might say.
Many believe that human behavior is somewhat controlled by moon cycles and where as this is rather funny and the surface sounds utterly preposterous, you might consider the increased crime rates during full moons and new moon cycles. In the future we may be able to use such knowledge to control civilizations by mimicking these vibrational frequency changes of the moon and sending them to a regional area via Satellite.
We might decide to counteract the Moon