Think of a society as a ball of soft clay: When you press down firmly from above with your thumb the clay doesn’t simply compress. Instead, it squeezes outward in all directions.
The center, where most people initially resided, becomes thinner and flatter, while the edges bulge.
Societal pressure, corporate policy, cultural oppression or political polarization apply: excessive pressure from above doesn’t just suppress people – it actively pushes them toward the extremes, hollowing out the moderate middle where compromise and dialogue once flourished.