Auctoritas

Authority

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

The Myth of Authority

There are people that are spreading the myth that governments have no authority and they even go so far as to say that "authority is only the right to do bad things".

This is of course patently false despite its popularity. It is often coupled with the idea that "Taxation is theft."

The truth is that often taxation is justice because most taxpayers are not law abiding which is the same reason governments do often have a great deal of legitimate authority.

Of course none of that is what people want to hear. But for those who want to hear the whole truth and provide for it now is the time to seek that truth.

Auctoritas

Auctoritas is a Latin word which is the origin of English "authority". While historically its use in English was restricted to discussions of the political history of Rome, the beginning of phenomenological philosophy in the 20th century expanded the use of the word.

An article titled "Authority in Ancient Rome: Auctoritas, Potestas, Imperium, and the Paterfamilias" and written by Jesse Sifuentes raises the possibility of some basic observation that when closely examined can give a comprehension of the navigation of authority from one individual to another.

Ancient Rome existed over a long period of time and one statement about Rome in 25BC might be completely misleading or even false in 250BC.

Jesse states, "Perhaps the ultimate authority was imperium, the power to command the Roman army." This would have been true from the view and understanding of most people in 25BC but years earlier it might not be true or at the very least deceptive.

The Roman army was all volunteer in the early days with each man bringing his own weapon and each group depending on supplies from their own community. It was more like a militia than the standing armies that would come with reform

Potestas was legal power belonging to the various roles of political offices but it was not that way in the beginning.

There was also auctoritas, a kind of intangible social authority tied to reputation and status.

In the everyday Roman household, the absolute authority was the father, known as the paterfamilias.

English Translation authority More meanings for auctoritas authority noun potestas, imperium, potentia, licentia, ius

The Myth of the "Myth of Authority" Doctrine
First Amendment Broadcast
http://KeysOfTheKingdom.info/KOK-161231.mp3
The Sabbath Hour
http://KeysOfTheKingdom.info/TSH-161231.mp3

“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.

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

They like to talk about “Social Contract” as if constitutions are the only “authority granted to that government by the citizens to protect these natural rights."

But the Constitution also provides for the right to contract individually which the government must also protect. Those individual contracts and the obligations they imply bind the slothful and wanton citizen through his own covetous practices.

As you judge, so shall ye be judged.

If you judge it right that you can take a benefit at the expense of your neighbor then your neighbor obtains a right to take a benefit at your expense.

Polybius warned Rome long before John the Baptist and Jesus and Peter warned us that we would become merchandise through our covetous practices.

"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." ... they have created among the masses an appetite for gifts and the habit of receiving them, democracy in its turn is abolished and changes into a rule of force and violence. 8 For the people, having grown accustomed to feed at the expense of others and to depend for their livelihood on the property of others, as soon as they find a leader who is enterprising but is excluded from the houses of office by his penury, institute the rule of violence; 9 and now uniting their forces massacre, banish, and plunder, until they degenerate again into perfect savages and find once more a master and monarch." Polybius

The people fed the spirit of tyranny in their own hearts every time they ate at the table of rulers. With every bite they came closer to being devoured.

What of other spirits of authority granted by the people?

• "So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty." James 2:12

It is often easier to ask questions than to give or hear the honest answer.

“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?"

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

The authority of the State is derived from the consent of the people but turning a blind eye to that consent and assent does not make it go away. The constitution is not the only contract with America.

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

“ No, government issues a government contract."

Actually there are well documented and published terms to the modern social contract. If you want to limit terms of a contract to a single white paper with the term contract at the top and your signature at the bottom you may do so but that is a naive approach to reality.

The Covenants of the gods details how through constructions of law we execute the contracts that bind us.

“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.”

Savoy is right “We are witnessing a decline of empire.”  but doubt there is any truth in his claim that “I owe nobody that which I have not voluntarily agreed to give, I owe you only non-aggression.”

If you have voluntarily taken you are bound. Inherent Rights are inherited and you can inheret both bondage and freedom. Israel was in bondage in Egypt for 400 years because of the actions of their ancestors.

“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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