The pilot with a fuel problem, who has to choose between crash landing now, on level land, or crossing the mountain hoping to make it to the airport on the far side – that pilot cannot pass the buck by consulting cabin staff or calling a mass meeting of the petrified passengers. He cannot delegate, dither or debate. To do his duty by the people put in his care he must make his move, fly down or fly on, in a lonely exercise of fallible free will. In short, he must act with arbitrary authority if he is to save the plane and its passengers. That is why Aquinas, after Aristotle, says that authority is a service to the people.