I don't think people "give" power to them. They can't "give" power if they don't have power.
I think the ruling class just auto-declares himself the authority, and then it starts hunting down people who opposes them. It's not the other way around.
If people are giving power to them, then they can also take it away. Which they actually can't in the real world.
So the rulers stole that power, and use it to crush dissent.
Agree. I might've been a bit unclear there.
By "give" power what I meant is that when the average person either just stands by and watches, or is completely deceived when someone declares themselves "authority", that is as good as "giving" power, because it is something which would never have happened if those people were pro-active and had a reasonable amount of knowledge.
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Power structures only form because it's "natural" in the sense that an individual, for his safety or security, agrees to be part of a commune where he provides services in exchange for the security he gets. Even within anarchy, there's no guarantee people wouldn't voluntarily form communes and rulers which may eventually grow into states. It is mostly psychological
Yes, thanks for clarifying, this is what I meant as well.
And this is an important distinguishment, I mean every person has power over their own lives, unless they live in a concentration camp, which is already the ultimate evil.
The question is how much of their lives they are sharing with the government. Well it looks like pretty much half of it, just based on taxes:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_Freedom_Day
So you are working half of the year just to pay taxes, which is half of your life sacrificed for the government.
Now suppose in the future people will have more free time, taxes might not go down, but people will find easier professions, instead of being a sweatshop slave for 18 hours/day, they can just be Steemit bloggers for 3-4 hours/day.
By having more time to think is a great opportunity to spread ideas about freedom. If people are not shackled, then they are obviously doing things for their freeom.
Once people taste freedom, they don't want to lose it. Just look at the hedonistic lifestyle of the youth. This is an example of repressed freedom in society, and people want to break out of it.
It starts by not being a work slave, and it really ends in anarchy, where the government will just have to go away because people will not put up with endless restrictions, they have a tendency to break free.
"If people are giving power to them, then they can also take it away. Which they actually can't in the real world."
Actually they can, only if the average person is well informed and reasonably knowledgable, which is the difficult part because those in power actively try to brainwash youth
Yes the brainwashing, propaganda, and keeping people passive is a great part of this, I was just going to write an article about this.