Rule is the act of one person bossing around (ruling, coercing) another. But it is also the act of the other person serving/following/obeying the ruler.
One CANNOT happen without the other.
There is no way that governments of men can control people without coercion. There is no way that coercion can be effective without the subject yielding to the coercion.
Coercion is naked force. Governments lie, steal, extort, murder and kidnap, all claimed to be under the people's authority. Almost everything governments do would be illegal if you or I did it. Governments, however, "legalize" their illegal acts under cover of doing it for you and me. This makes us complicit in those actions unless we remove our consent.
Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey...? Romans 6:16
"Mindsets can not be changed through force and coercion. No idea can ever be forcibly thrust upon any one." - Pervez Musharraf
"If he who employs coercion against me could mould me to his purposes by argument, no doubt he would. He pretends to punish me because his argument is strong; but he really punishes me because his argument is weak." - William Yahwehwin
"The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws." Tacitus - The Annals of Imperial Rome
"Because politics rests on an irreducible measure of coercion, it can never become a perfect realm of perfect love and justice." - Christopher Lasch
The question is: How does one remove their consent to be coerced without suffering bad consequences?
Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey Yahweh rather than men. Acts 5:29
This requires outright disobedience of man's law if it is opposed to Yahweh's law. Fortunately (or unfortunately) most laws do not contradict. I say "unfortunately" because the sooner the laws contradict the sooner Christ will return.
But, can one remove or withdraw their complicity?
"This world is not my home, I'm just a passing through" is how the song goes and it correctly states the philosophy required.
The next chapter will explore this answer.
