If other people are telling you how to live your life and are threatening you with fines and jail for not being able to do simple things like smoke a joint or have a say what you do with your own body then we are not free.
Only a dumbed down society 'needs' to be ruled.
The net evolution/revolution is moving past the idea of needing to be ruled by others.
If not we will end up in a 1984 Orwellian reality.