What is authority and why do we resist it?

Highlights from our meeting on 07/02/03

1. Where does authority come from?
2. Does authority come from position or title?
3. What is the relationship between authority and power?
4. Is authority and power the same thing?
5. Doesn't authority imply more than just power?
6. Doesn't authority imply some kind of social structure?
7. Doesn't authority imply a power to enforce some kind of social order or structure?
8. When we resist authority, are we resisting the social order?
9. Isn't there a natural drive or desire to be free from restraint?
10. Do we resist authority because authority always demands some kind of individual restraint?
11. Do we resist all authority?
12. Do we resist more restrictive authority more than less restrictive authority?
13. Is there such a thing as legitimate authority as opposed to illegitimate authority?
14. Do we resist illegitimate authority and not resist legitimate authority?
15. What would characterize legitimate authority?
16. Is legitimate authority, authority that we willingly submit to for the greater good?
17. Does legitimate authority also imply competence to perform some public good in the position of authority?
18. Would an example of legitimate authority be a ship's captain, skilled in navigation and crew management?
19. Wouldn't we acknowledge the authority of a captain on his own ship?
20. To be legitimate, doesn't the authority have to be accepted by the group as a whole?
21. Don't people need to "buy into" the authority, for the authority to be legitimate?
22. Then couldn't some individuals feel the need to resist authority that the majority sees as legitimate?
23. Is the legitimacy of authority, then, an individual judgement?
24. Do I have to recognize someone's authority over me, just because others do?
25. But doesn't authority, conferred by a group, empower that authority over everyone in the group?
26. Whether or not you recognize someone's authority over you, don't you still have still have to recognize their power, if they have been empowered by the group?
27. But what about power that does not come from group consent?
28. In totalitarian societies, isn't power derived from police or military force rather than democratic consent?
29. In these societies, aren't the "proper authorities" a source of fear and abuse rather than skilled, competent, public service?
30. Who wants to be turned into or scrutinized by the "proper authorities" in such societies?
31. Hasn't the word "authority" itself been corrupted by oppressive political systems?
32. Isn't it a common propaganda technique to coopt language to put up a false facade of legitimacy?
33. Doesn't the true meaning of the word "authority" share its roots with "authentic" and authorship"?
34. Doesn't true authority come from a kind of authenticity of character and authorship in a particular area of competence?
35. Don't we use the word to refer to an expert in a particular field?
36. Can't someone be an authority on native American culture or the mating behavior of the pacific salmon, for example?
37. So shouldn't an authority in government be an expert in governing?
38. Wouldn't an expert in governing be skilled in persuading citizens to act in the public good?
39. Wouldn't such a skilled and competent authority recognize, as a wise parent might, the utility of leveraging the innate drive or desire within individuals to live a meaningful life?
40. Doesn't living a meaningful life inevitably involve some kind of service to others?
41. Isn't the use of violence or the threat of violence, on the other hand, the hallmark of unskilled or less skilled governing?
42. Isn't another hallmark of such unskilled governing, tremendous tension between the governing and the governed?
43. Doesn't this tremendous tension between the governing and the governed make such a government unstable in the long run?
44. Don't such systems generally reach a breaking point and come to a catastrophic end?
45. But isn't some tension between individual and authority, even "legitimate" authority, inevitable?
46. Isn't it right and appropriate for individuals to resist, to a greater or lesser extent, authority that is, to a lesser or greater extent, competent?
47. Isn't this resistance precisely the kind of feedback authority needs in order to correct itself over the long run?