The beast has long since stopped serving to become the master. The Confed did what governments were famed for: it made more government. To oppose it … - Steve Perry

Of course, laws weren’t always just. Some rules outlawed a thing because it was intrinsically bad: child molestation, say. Other rules made harmless activities crimes only because someone wished them to be so. Take cohabitation on a religious holiday. On some worlds, it was legal on one day, illegal the next, and on the third, okay once again. Khadaji could see no moral dilemma there.

“You cheated!”
“Hell yes, I did. I learned a long time ago, better you learn to fight smarter, not harder.”
“If you had not had the pistol—”
“Then I’d have used some other tool. Knife, stick, a chair, whatever. Fighting fair gets you killed unless the other guy also fights fair and you are better than him and lucky. First rule: Don’t do it.

Never hide from the consequences of your orders.