I read a comment last night on YouTube where an obvious corporatist ranted about how he “respects authority, obeys the law, and is a good person”. This, of course, got me thinking. Respect authority and good person are equal?!? Is that the allegation here? Is this person attempting to state that people who don’t just randomly “obey my authoritah” are bad people? That certainly seems to be the implication so let’s look at that for a moment shall we?
Language
Those who are familiar with my thought processes and how I explain myself understand that I like to break things down and since this is a statement of words then we need to understand those words so we understand each other. If obey my authoritah has a different meaning to you than it does to myself then we aren’t communicating.
That said let’s begin breaking this down. From the free online dictionary we find this:
o·bey (ō-bā′)
v.tr. 1. To carry out or fulfill the command, order, or instruction of.
2. To carry out or comply with (a command, for example).
Although the dictionary does have a “legal” section there is no change in this meaning there as it’s pretty straight forward. To obey means essentially to “do as you’re told” just like with Mom and Dad.
From the same resource we find:
au·thor·i·ty (ə-thôr′ĭ-tē, ə-thŏr′-, ô-)
1. a. The power to enforce laws, exact obedience, command, determine, or judge.
2. Power assigned to another; authorization: Deputies were given authority to make arrests.
b. A quotation or citation from such a source: biblical authorities for a moral argument.
5. Justification; grounds: On what authority do you make such a claim?
6. A conclusive statement or decision that may be taken as a guide or precedent.
Obviously the latter word comes with many more questions as to the meaning of it’s use but let’s suppose the claim on the comment was the first one as that seems to be the most logical.
Who has this Authority?
This is truly the root of the matter here. We know not to “talk back” to our Moms. We don’t (generally) threaten or hit our Dads. This is because we recognize the basic structure of the family unit and it’s chain of authority. It was taught to us as children before we even knew what we were rightly doing. The family unit is also the basic unit of any society and is why so much emphasis is placed on protecting it’s integrity.
I highly doubt, however, that the comment was about Mom and Dad and their abilities to exact obedience within their own homes. I suspect since I was researching the Canada Revenue Agency that the comment was referring to governance and the authorities granted to them. So let’s take a quick peek at that.
Where does the Authority Come From?
The claim made by royalty and religion is that all authority comes from God. This is an interesting debate that is too deep for a simple blog post so we’ll simply go with what the “government” claims on this matter.
Early in this century all of the leaders of the western world seemed to go on a rampage about “governed by consent” and “the consent of the governed”. These democratic organizations are proud to proclaim that it’s the people who elect and grant them the authority they possess. They don’t even hide that part of the debate and that is suppose to be what makes democracy so great: it takes the power from authoritarian leaders and places it in the hands of the people.
Power of the People
It’s been centuries of battles and conflict to achieve the present day system and remove monarchs from power. It’s my opinion that the remaining monarchies are nothing more than figurative and powerless at this point. I only know of two remaining, England and Holland. (I may be wrong.) Russia’s Czar was removed by the Bolsheviks. Germany’s Kaiser was removed by Hitler. The french monarchy ended in their revolution and the Queens of England and Holland relinquished to the parliaments peaceably.
Since the power therefore lies with the people then to proclaim “obey my authoritah” is very much a mute point as no one person can factually have authority over another as a matter of all men being equal. Thus the people’s granting their power to a government can really only mean one thing. There is no power and there is no real government. There are only employees appointed by the people to do their bidding and they can’t bid for one person to be dominated by another. That is a fatal flaw of fundamental justice.
Conclusion
Since there is no real authority to obey and there is no real right for on person to dominate another then that only leaves us with one conclusion. We have a boat load of disobedient employees who need to be shipped off to space to fight it out there and to leave us and our planet in peace. With that I’ll leave you with the picture below to consider the implications of the statements involved.
Peace and Prosperity,
Rob
