Disagreements about Responding to Authority
We must always question authority. Their claim to it, their use of it, their backers, their purpose. And certainly question more aggressively than we have been. But that idea that we must simply defy established authority for the sake of defiance is absurd. Most established authority is unjust, immoral, illegal, self-serving, corrupt, or criminal — or some combination thereof — but automatic defiance accomplishes little while potentially causing tremendous damage in the long-term.
We need to ask: “What is the best way of accomplishing our goal?” Sometimes defiance works, sometimes it’s cooperation, sometimes recognition of existing systems or processes — imperfect or corrupt as they may be.
Those who argue that we must rise up against all authority in defiance — or simply in those places where we have in the past — will rarely accomplish much. Too, they’ll find themselves reenacting a cliched “boy-who-cried-wolf” scenario where, when authority actually deserves to be defied, there are none to stand with you.
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