This is where the notion of structure comes into play. Everything in existence has some kind of purpose, which automatically means everything in existence has some kind of structure be it a company, the human body or a blender.  A company with the wrong structure will always fall short of its targets, the human body with the wrong structure will fall ill, and a blender with the wrong structure will simply cease to function.

Leadership or an individual in authority is vital to any structure involving a group of people, because a leader is chosen to ensure the given goal is met. The leader's role exceeds everyone else's, because the leader is held accountable for the group's mistakes whether he/she caused them or not.

So the question now is if the leader plays such an important role, why make their lives difficult by standing up to them?

The truth is ideally leaders should be supported regardless of their shortcomings. In fact as followers we should compliment our leader's weaknesses with our strengths.

However no one should be above the governing law or code of ethics, which means in special circumstances when leaders go out of their way to destroy people physically, emotionally, or spiritually then standing up to their authority will be understandable and even necessary.

The key thing to remember is that we constantly need to put things in perspective, and keep our eye on the ball by asking ourselves one question:

If I stand up to my authority will it help me reach my goal?

This is free advice, do what you want with it.