Obey! (part 2)

October 30th, 2023

There is nothing inherently wrong with being ordered — for example, accepting orders from a traffic cop, a teacher conducting class, or from a ship captain giving orders in an emergency. They have authority and acting on their orders in the name of reason is universally becoming. Or almost universally... I can accept their authority without submitting. They are rational and our obedience in those cases is rational as well.

Irrational authority has to use force, or a suggestion, or a force of suggestion, or implied shame or exclusion. Irrational authorities must act like that because no one would let themselves be exploited if they could prevent it without implied punishment for disobedience. Is that the reason we are so prone to obey the authorities? Is it always the safety of knowing that if I am obedient, then the power of the State, or the Church, or public opinion will leave me alone? Or maybe even protect me, or show me the disobedient ones so I can hate them or at least sneer at them?

The request for obedience always comes from the position of those who fraudulently claim omniscience and omnipotence. It is very difficult to take on arguing different points of view against institutionalized dogma — political, social, religious, or otherwise. It takes courage to engage in such an argument, especially because it can lead to admitting an error, or to sin. And since what is sinful is defined by those powers, it can easily lead to ostracism and loneliness. Those burdens only very few can carry.