Authority

According to Merriam Webster the definition of "authority" is: power to influence or command thought, opinion, or behavior.

I was lead to write and talk about the idea that there is a myth that governments have authority because of a video attributed to The Myth of Authority (The Most Dangerous Superstition) - Larken Rose'.

The truth is most taxpayers are not law abiding.

Larken video stated that authority is only the right to do bad things.

The Myth of Authority

“Civilizations are not mandated by authorities, nor are they the products of systemic planning. People did not get together and say to one another “hey, let’s start a civilization!” Such cultures have been, rather, the unintended consequences arising from the interplay of creative forces that sustain and enhance life. ” – Butler Shaffer “The Wizards of Ozymandias”

Those forces are first of the spirit.

SAVOY article

Ends with “ I owe nobody that which I have not voluntarily agreed to give, I owe you only non-aggression.” savoy

Talks about “Social Contract”

Talks about  “the authority granted to that government by the citizens to protect these natural rights."

What of other spirits of authority granted by the people?

“Does the use of authority provide those which it is enacted on a benefit? Is there a value to authority? If societies did not grant authority to a group of individuals would this society collapse into chaos? “savoy

"I’d like to challenge the paradigm of dependency on authority firstly by asking this question; from where is the State’s authority derived?" Savoy

Was the Constitution and its authority granted to that government by the citizens?

“ No, government issues a government contract  “ savoy

“The real destroyers of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations, and benefits.”Plutarch

Antifederalist papers Number 6, Under the pseudonym, “CENTINEL,” States “The evils of anarchy have been portrayed with all the imagery of language in the growing colors of eloquence; the affrighted mind is thence led to clasp the new Constitution as the instrument of deliverance, as the only avenue to safety and happiness. To avoid the possible and transitory evils of one extreme, it is seduced into the certain and permanent misery necessarily attendant on the other.”

“ We are witnessing a decline of empire.”  savoy

“ I owe nobody that which I have not voluntarily agreed to give, I owe you only non-aggression.” savoy

Polybius "The masses continue with an appetite for benefits and the habit of receiving them by way of a rule of force and violence. The people, having grown accustomed to feed at the expense of others and to depend for their livelihood on the property of others... institute the rule of violence; and now uniting their forces massacre, banish, and plunder, until they degenerate again into perfect savages and find once more a master and monarch."

“But who would make the laws?”  without government??

How many laws do you need?

Tacitus said the more laws the more corrupt the people.

Would ten laws be enough?

The Myth of Leadership

The Myth of Leadership is a business book written by former Brigham Young University lecturer Jeffrey Nielsen

Professor Nielsen argues that we frequently use the words leader and leadership metaphorically to refer to some talent or skill that is needed, which use does little damage as well as little good. However he adds, when we use the words formally to designate officially someone as leader or some position as leadership, then we create unhealthy and deleterious organizational and community relationships.

As soon as we formally designate a leader, Nielsen argues, we create within the organization a dichotomy, two groups, to one we assign duties, and to the other we assign privileges. We confer unique and powerful privileges upon the few leaders and specify numerous duties to be obeyed by the many followers. The followers, the vast majority, are consigned to an inferior status, even to be sacrificed, if needs be, to preserve and protect the power and privilege of those designated as leaders – whether through layoffs, war, tax cuts, or even welfare reform. To the leaders, the elite few, we grant the rights and privileges to command and control the vast resources, most importantly the information and decision-making power. There are no exceptions to this split between the privileged few and the burdened many – it will occur, Nielsen believes, in any and every organization that formally designates individuals as leaders and positions as leadership positions.

Just as soon as we call someone the leader, Nielsen says we have created a rank-based context that defines power as “power-over", even to the extent of coercion and manipulation; authority as the right to exercise power in a command and control manner; and hierarchy as the means of transmission of authority from the top down through privileged delegation. There is no way to avoids this. It is inevitable. Professor Nielsen relates it to what Michel Foucault would call the discourse formation of the concept of leadership, and it is what Stephen Austin would call the speech act of leader. Wikipedia

Question Authority

The slogan "Question Authority" has been around at least since the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates.

So, let us question authority.

From where is the authority of government derived?

Does your father have authority over his son?

Does the Mother nursing you have the right to put you to bed and tell you to stay in your room?

Does your father whose house you live in and whose table you eat at have a right to tell you when to come home?

Can you terminate your parents right to tell you what to do and not do?

After all they gave you life, fed you sheltered you, changed your diaper for years. Just because you get a job and your own apartment can you just terminate all the natural or rightful authority of your parents?

The truth is if your natural father builds the house you live in, puts food on the table for you to eat, cloths on your back and protect you from all the things that might stop your life then he has a right to make choices for you. He earned it because your life is something he made, not something you made.

What if the State provides food, clothes, shelter, education, & health care for you?

Does the state now have some of the rights of the natural father?

The truth is almost all government authority is merely the right of the Conscripted fathers who sit in offices created by governments. In fact, the power and authority of the State is most often based on the Patrimonial right of kings and rulers who derived that authority from the natural fathers who produce society.

The State has been steadily becoming the Father of the people for centuries through providing or spreading “among them bounties, donations, and benefits”

Protection draws to it subjection, subjection, protection.

Protectio trahit subjectionem, subjectio projectionem.

All this about substitute fathers and state as your father is why Jesus said "And call no [man] your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven." Matthew 23:9

So authority may be derived naturally from the offer of protection and provision.

This brings us back to the words of men like Plutarch and Polybius who said "The masses continue with an appetite for benefits and the habit of receiving them by way of a rule of force and violence. The people, having grown accustomed to feed at the expense of others and to depend for their livelihood on the property of others... institute the rule of violence; and now uniting their forces massacre, banish, and plunder, until they degenerate again into perfect savages and find once more a master and monarch."

We are warned about this appetite for benefits in Proverbs 23 if we sit to eat at the table or welfare system of rulers. It certainly tells us not to covet our neighbor's goods or anything that belongs to our neighbor. The Modern Christians ignore all that because he believes he has saved himself by what he thinks about Jesus.

It is these Covetous Practices that makes us Merchandise and gives authority to men to rule over us.

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