Authority
"I don't need a policeman to tell me how to be good." Ammon Hennacy, (anarchist).
I admit that i have always had authority issues, and i never took well to the idea of obedience. I was delighted when i read Parker Palmer's definition of obedience a few years back: To obey is to "listen from below." The authority figure might actually have some wisdom to impart, so i will listen respectfully to what she, he or it has to say and take that information into account in making my decision about what to believe or do. Since the consequences of my actions ought to fall squarely on me, i must take full responsibility for my actions. "I was only following orders," was not an acceptable defense at Nuremberg and ought not be acceptable anywhere.
As a synonym for "power," "authority" lies somewhere past the middle of a continuum running from "potency" to "violence;" past a certain point, it tends to move, on its own volition, toward the latter. If orders don't produce the expected response, perhaps yelling will help, then waterboarding, then bombing strikes, then we may have to really get tough.
Humans (not to be confused with middle class white Americans) spent the vast majority of their time on earth without having to have much concern about authority, Of potential their was plenty, influence certainly existed. and even a certain amount of persuasion might occur. Persons with a reputation for wisdom, or with a track record of successful leadership might be called on over and over again for advice. But celebrity meant nothing, charisma counted for very little, titles were jokes, and an overbearing or officious attitude was a definite no no. If leadership did not produce positive outcomes for the whole community, it was discarded. Even early chiefs dared not test their authority beyond their "follower's" willingness to follow. A favorite story of mine comes from Alex Haley's Roots: A very young Kunte Kinte comes upon a deserted village. He asked in another village where those people were. He was told that the villagers were tired of the officious manner of their chief so they left to set up a village somewhere else. The chief had followed them, begging for another chance.
Power corrupts, wrote Lord Acton. He was not making a statement about human nature but about the nature of power. Force, said Simone Weil, oppresses those subject to it and intoxicates those who possess it, We see that authority and obedience allow the completion of massive projects, but the costs are not counted by those whose counting counts.
Last night we watched a PBS show on the building of the Panama Canal. The lies and corruption and deaths (20,000 or more) that were lost in the failed attempt in the 1880s. were due to the "authority" that its developer possessed as a result of past successes at building. In the process, the French middle and working classes became impoverished. Later Theodore Roosevelt, another person with "authority" would repeat the process with, i think, almost identical results (except in this case the canal got built). This was a political and economic disaster for the of many railroad and canal workers who would never, in any case, have derived benefit from the canal's existence.
An example of the corrupting power of power is the common abuse of authority by gurus, swamis, and other spiritual leaders from the priest who told my spouse to divorce me to the inquisitors of the middle ages. That students sometimes thrive in spite of the abusive authority of spiritual teachers does not justify such abuse. But few of us have the humility and sense of proportion required to remain "unintoxicated" by authority.
Massive projects, no matter how grand or necessary, are not worth the costs in humiliation, physical suffering and death that it takes to complete them under "proper authority."
I admit that i have always had authority issues, and i never took well to the idea of obedience. I was delighted when i read Parker Palmer's definition of obedience a few years back: To obey is to "listen from below." The authority figure might actually have some wisdom to impart, so i will listen respectfully to what she, he or it has to say and take that information into account in making my decision about what to believe or do. Since the consequences of my actions ought to fall squarely on me, i must take full responsibility for my actions. "I was only following orders," was not an acceptable defense at Nuremberg and ought not be acceptable anywhere.
As a synonym for "power," "authority" lies somewhere past the middle of a continuum running from "potency" to "violence;" past a certain point, it tends to move, on its own volition, toward the latter. If orders don't produce the expected response, perhaps yelling will help, then waterboarding, then bombing strikes, then we may have to really get tough.
Humans (not to be confused with middle class white Americans) spent the vast majority of their time on earth without having to have much concern about authority, Of potential their was plenty, influence certainly existed. and even a certain amount of persuasion might occur. Persons with a reputation for wisdom, or with a track record of successful leadership might be called on over and over again for advice. But celebrity meant nothing, charisma counted for very little, titles were jokes, and an overbearing or officious attitude was a definite no no. If leadership did not produce positive outcomes for the whole community, it was discarded. Even early chiefs dared not test their authority beyond their "follower's" willingness to follow. A favorite story of mine comes from Alex Haley's Roots: A very young Kunte Kinte comes upon a deserted village. He asked in another village where those people were. He was told that the villagers were tired of the officious manner of their chief so they left to set up a village somewhere else. The chief had followed them, begging for another chance.
Power corrupts, wrote Lord Acton. He was not making a statement about human nature but about the nature of power. Force, said Simone Weil, oppresses those subject to it and intoxicates those who possess it, We see that authority and obedience allow the completion of massive projects, but the costs are not counted by those whose counting counts.
Last night we watched a PBS show on the building of the Panama Canal. The lies and corruption and deaths (20,000 or more) that were lost in the failed attempt in the 1880s. were due to the "authority" that its developer possessed as a result of past successes at building. In the process, the French middle and working classes became impoverished. Later Theodore Roosevelt, another person with "authority" would repeat the process with, i think, almost identical results (except in this case the canal got built). This was a political and economic disaster for the of many railroad and canal workers who would never, in any case, have derived benefit from the canal's existence.
An example of the corrupting power of power is the common abuse of authority by gurus, swamis, and other spiritual leaders from the priest who told my spouse to divorce me to the inquisitors of the middle ages. That students sometimes thrive in spite of the abusive authority of spiritual teachers does not justify such abuse. But few of us have the humility and sense of proportion required to remain "unintoxicated" by authority.
Massive projects, no matter how grand or necessary, are not worth the costs in humiliation, physical suffering and death that it takes to complete them under "proper authority."