10. On Power:The moment an order is refused, power vanishes instantly.

When I choose to obey your command, you hold power over me. When I refuse to obey your command, you hold no power over me. The essence of power is obedience; without obedience, there is no power. Thus, power originates from the obedience of those commanded. The moment the commanded party refuses to obey, power is immediately lost. This holds true for all power relationships—whether parental authority over children, employer authority over employees, governmental authority over citizens, or any dynamic where one party issues commands and the other accepts them. There are no exceptions.

A government holds power only when the people willingly submit to it; when the people refuse to obey, the government loses its authority. Thus, governmental power originates from the people, and sovereignty resides with the populace. The saying "He who wins the hearts of the people wins the world" simply means: whoever gains the widespread obedience of the masses can seize political power.

So how does one secure the people's obedience? Governments typically employ the following methods:

1. Intimidate the people.

Enacting harsh laws and establishing institutions like police forces, armies, secret services, courts, and prisons to enforce them, ensuring people constantly face severe punishment. This includes confiscating property, restricting freedom, inflicting physical harm, and taking lives. In short, employing every possible means to instill fear, compelling obedience through terror. While intimidation is one of the government's most frequent tactics, it is generally not the first resort. It is typically the last resort when other methods fail.

If a government relies solely on intimidation to maintain its rule, it is undoubtedly in a precarious state and will likely collapse soon.

2. Numbing the people.

China anesthetizes its people with Confucianism, while foreign nations use religion—the most obvious examples. Confucianism portrays the monarch as a father figure, elevating loyalty and filial piety as the supreme principles of life. By demanding loyalty to the ruler and devotion to the father, it subverts people's obedience to the monarch without their conscious awareness. Whether in the West or the East, religions cannot flourish without aligning with political power. Once integrated with the state, religion becomes a tool to anesthetize the populace into submission to the government.

Of course, the means of anesthetizing the people extend beyond Confucianism and religion to include instilling various notions conducive to rule. Examples include: "Better to live a miserable life than die a noble death" and "As long as the green mountains remain, we needn't fear the lack of firewood." These notions aim to instill a fear of death in the populace, for rulers understand that the more death-fearing the people, the easier they are to govern.

III. Deceiving the People.

Methods of deceiving the people have existed since ancient times, but they have been vigorously developed and employed in modern times. The reason lies in the decline of Confucianism and religion. When governments found they could no longer anesthetize the people, they had no choice but to resort to deception to secure obedience. Controlling freedom of speech, monopolizing the channels of social information dissemination, concealing the truth from the people, and weaving lies for them are consistent tactics of modern governments to achieve deception. The more authoritarian the state, the deeper the deception runs.

IV. Bribing the People.

Offering positions, money, honors—in short, employing every means of enticement to lure the most capable individuals into government service. By making these capable individuals work for the government, turning them into partners of the rulers, the government secures their assistance in governing the people. This prevents these capable individuals from leading the people in rebellion against the government.

V. Winning the People's Allegiance.

The government's goal in anesthetizing and deceiving the populace is also to win their genuine allegiance. However, allegiance gained through anesthesia and deception is not true allegiance. Because anesthesia will eventually wear off, and lies will inevitably be exposed. Only by genuinely upholding social fairness and justice, and protecting the rights of the people, can the government truly win the people's allegiance. When the people are genuinely loyal to the government, the government's power becomes as solid as a rock, unbreakable.

Clearly, of the five methods above, only the fifth is one the people are willing to accept. Yet no government in the world today employs solely the fifth method; nearly all governments mix and use all five. Naturally, the more a government adopts the fifth method, the more civilized it is; the more it relies on the first method, the more evil it becomes.

Although governmental power originates from the people, an evil government can still tower above them, compelling obedience. The root cause of this phenomenon lies in the fact that governments are organized entities, while the people remain loosely organized. If the people learn to consciously and collectively refuse obedience to the government, an evil regime can be swiftly toppled. Thus, power that appears formidable is actually fragile. It is only because the people do not yet know how to refuse obedience that governments seem omnipotent. Once the people awaken and refuse to comply, governments will have no choice but to prostrate themselves at the feet of the people, truly becoming their servants.