3.1 Authority v. Power

“Behind every system of law there is a god. To find the god in any system, locate the source of law in that system. If the source of law is the individual, then the individual is the god of that system. If the source of the law is the people, the dictatorship of the proletariat, or the majority, then these things are the gods of that system. If our source of law is the court, then the court is our god. If there is no higher law beyond man, then man is his own god, or else his creatures, the institutions he has made, have become his gods. When you choose your authority, you choose your god, and where you look for your law, there is your god.”

R. J. Rushdoony