The Most Dangerous Superstition by Larken Rose slams the belief in authority, especially government, as the most dangerous lie in society.
He argues that this superstition leads to mass violence, oppression, and enslavement because people mindlessly follow orders from those in power, just like a cult.
He insists that individuals must take responsibility for their actions and stop bowing to government control. In other words, you can’t vote your way to freedom and prosperity. Politicians, no matter what they say or how they act, are just actors on a stage.
If you can convince the people to accept and rely on ‘authority,’ you don’t need to force them.
—Larken Rose
Larken’s book pushes for a stateless society where cooperation is voluntary and no one has the right to rule over anyone else.
To obey or not to obey?
He argues that most people have been conditioned to believe that obedience is a virtue, and that following orders makes one a good person.
It doesn’t.
In reality, doing what’s right, Larken says, means standing up to so-called ‘authorities’ who abuse their self-imposed power to harm innocent people. Additionally, Jack Donovan, in his book The Way of Men (and conversation with me), argues that masculinity means being strong, honourable, masterful, and courageous. Men should not blindly obey.
Martin Luther King highlighted this by saying that while we have a responsibility to follow just laws, we also have a moral duty to disobey unjust ones.
So, the question is: which laws are just?
Henry David Thoreau took it further, arguing that if a law requires you to act unjustly towards others, you should break that law. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn agreed, stating that when a regime is immoral, people are no longer obligated to follow it.
The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie. One word of truth outweighs the world.
—Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Live Not by Lies (1974)
Howard Zinn pointed out the dangers of blind obedience, noting that the greatest atrocities in history happened when individuals submitted their conscience to government authority.
Soldiers, for example.
Or the police.
They don’t ask questions. They just follow orders.
Don’t obey
Those who push back are always labelled criminals and troublemakers.
Think about that.
Where I live, people were so indoctrinated by the most dangerous superstition that they reported their neighbours to the police for walking their dogs during lockdown.
It’s completely insane.
Tyrants will always demonise those who refuse to obey. Every authoritarian regime in history was funded and supported by law-abiding taxpayers. Progress towards a freer and more moral society was made by those who disobeyed—not by politely asking or voting, but by resisting those in power.
Blind obedience is the greatest threat to humanity.
—Larken Rose
The harsh truth is that the power of tyrants comes from the obedience of the masses, a point echoed by Mattias Desmet in our conversation about mass formation
To be clear, disobedience isn’t about overthrowing governments.
It’s about refusing to support injustice.
It’s about rejecting illegitimate authority.
⚠️ I recommend listening to my conversation with Andrew Treglia, who worked with Larken on the film The Jones Plantation, which is about breaking free from mental enslavement.
Larken Rose on the most dangerous superstition