The Border-Watchers (A Parable)

 Once upon a time, a clever thief came to a town and said to the people of that town.
"You're town is under threat. An army is coming to attack you. I've seen them. An army of foreigners that want to take what's yours".
"Well what should we do?", asked the people of the town.
"Everyone should guard the borders of your town. Every man woman and child should keep watch for the enemy so that no one can get into the town", he replied.
And so the citizens of the town devoted their time to guarding the towns borders from the enemy they thought was coming.
Unfortunately, because they were all looking outward they all had their backs to their town and couldn't see what was happening inside it.
And while they were watching the borders, the thief started going around their houses stealing from them.
Once or twice of course, someone would turn round, curious to see what was going on behind them but whenever they did someone else would tell them, "Eyes front! You don't want to let one of the enemy slip past do you?".
Then when the clever thief had stolen enough he tunnelled out of the town under the feet of all the people watching their border.
The moral of this story: It is a common trick of thieves and politicians to get us to focus on an imagined threat from outside so that we don't pay any attention to the crimes that are being perpetrated within.