… is from page 109 of Michael Huemer’s insightful and powerful 2013 book, The Problem of Political Authority:
Respect for authority was Hitler’s key weapon. The same is true of all the greatest man-made evils. No one has ever managed, working alone, to kill over a million people. Nor has anyone ever arranged such an evil by appealing to the profit motive, pure self-interest, or moral suasion to secure the cooperation of others – except by relying on institutions of political authority. With the help of such institutions, many such crimes have been carried out, accounting for tens of millions of deaths, along with many more ruined lives.
