Authority. Is it real and legitimate? Is it illusion and fantasy? Is there no authority? Is there a misunderstanding through lack of clarity?
What about authenticity? Are we really living an authentic life when others are authorities and have authorship over parts of our lives?
Reality, Truth and Morality
We are authentic by being authors and authorities of our own lives, through objective understanding of reality, truth and morality. To be authors living in authentic alignment with truth and morality, we are to equalize and align our subjective inner-reality with the objective outer-reality. The map should reflect the territory (reality) and know how to navigate it with moral truth.
Otherwise we are inauthentic by being deprived of understanding objective reality, truth and morality. We are buying into, believing (trust, loyalty, faith) and following another's authority and authored narratives about reality and how to live. If we take falsity as truth, or believe in fantasy unreality, then we are reduced in our capacity to authentically live and navigate reality as best we can. Even ignorance of certain things will have us walk on paths of misunderstanding, authoring our lives through ignorance and better navigation.
To live in a subjective inner-reality that doesn't align properly with the objective outer-reality, creates a fracture, disequilibrium or misalignment in our ability to navigate, move and progress through the objective reality we actually live in. We are binding ourselves to externalized beliefs in authority, as legitimate ways of living, through the trust, loyalty and faith we put into these beliefs, or the trust, loyalty and faith we put into those who influence and invoke these beliefs into us.
Etymology
Authority:
"*invention, advice, opinion, influence, command*," from auctor "*master, leader, author*". Meaning "power to enforce obedience" is from late 14c.; meaning "people in authority" is from 1610s. Authorities "those in charge, those with police powers" is recorded from mid-19c.
Author:
from Old French auctor, acteor "*author, originator, creator, instigator*", from Latin auctorem "*enlarger, founder, master, leader*," literally "*one who causes to grow*", from auctus, augere "*to increase*" (see augment).Author, auctor, auctus, augere is about augmenting, increasing and cause to grow. Something is "grown" into manifested reality where it was not before, instigated by the author who founded it. From the seed in consciousness to the manifested growth in reality that they created. Anything you create has been authored by you.
Authentic:
from Greek authentikos "*original, genuine, principal*," from authentes "o*ne acting on one's own authority*,", from autos "self" + hentes "doer, being," from PIE *sene- "to accomplish, achieve."
Being authentic, real and genuine, is to be the author of our own life, in alignment with reality and principled living, which maximizes accomplishing of our goals in reality.
Going against what is right, good and true, is going against a higher truer potential of the right way of living, and ultimately going against ourselves, our optimal survival through reciprocal cooperation. Morality is the principal capital in life for living socially.
This is based in reality and grounded thinking, not allowing someone else to condition you to accept a belief (like external authority) without verification. You follow a determination of morality, truth and anything else by being able to verify it as being true, not simply following what others claim to be true. Be it corrupted or not, accurate or not, it is up to you to determine what is right from wrong, true from false.
Source, Source
Externalized Authority
Notice the current conventional meaning of authority is the corrupted concept that people believe in, developed after the original meaning of the word. Authority, authenticity and authorship, are powers divested from ourselves and put into an external power, often a specialized group. We subsume our innate authorship to be our own authority, and follow the authority of another instead of ourselves. We live inauthentically rather than authentically.
A person who teaches the authority of morality as the way of living, that anyone else can verify in their own life, is someone to pay attention to (but not blindly follow). People will recognize this person understands reality, what to do, and how to live.
They gain credibility, reputation and respect for their understanding of reality. This is how natural leaders are formed. This is how people can be influenced into seeing morality and doing the right things. This is wisdom, for wisdom is phio-sophia, the love wisdom which is how to engage in right-actions, not wrong actions.
"Government" as a loose idea, can be used in such a way as an advisory council to influence and guide our choices in life, but not dictating what we do. It would be people who have no power over others other than the power we all have: to speak and influence others according to reality, or unreality.
Only verification through reality, of the concepts they speak, can determine if what they speak is true or not. To follow their concepts blindly will produce the same centralized authority we have now. Those who succeed in influence will do so from the result of being recognized for being wise and being able to influence others towards morally positive outcomes. That is the "magic"/influence of life, and not in an evil way.
Part 2 will deal more with explaining internal vs. external authority.
Thank you for your time and attention. Peace.
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Authority is the legitime use of Power when one person can exercise it over other(s) if there is a perception of rightfulness, effectiveness, non-domination by coercive means, and influence without persuasion on the basis of a formal contract where members accept "social formal order" to regulate their actions.
Authority is based on consent in a voluntary submission to a system of coordination and cooperation with formal rules and regulations are well defined.
We can't solve social problems with centralized despotic authority, regulations and power clustering.
Government authority always sees aggression under the Power of the law justified with the replacement of "Social Order".
Arthur Schopenhauer said that the basis of morality is the value and the feeling of compassion.
Morality is the governance of our behavior and has its roots in a property of thoughts and actions of each individual, and the element of behavioral coordination within a group of individuals in social interaction.
I like the theories of natural rights by showing that people have inalienable rights to life, property and the right to find freedom as essential ingredients for nurturing human happiness as the pillars of civilization and society.
Yes, to o it without fear of a false social order it does need to be approved by society, but it can be lawfully done in moral law even if the social normative order doesn't yet recognize something as immoral and you act to stop the immorality. Slavery was legal and part of the social order, but to stop slavers would have been lawfully moral regardless of the social order.
You have the authority to act morally in any devolved society that fails to recognize morality, but they won't necessarily like it and may hurt you through false perceptions of thinking you are the violent when when you aren't. Even if 95% cooperate to enslave 4%, if 1% recognize morality and act int hat authority, they are lawfully (morally) doing so, despite not "legally" doing so.
Morality (Maat) is the pillar and foundation for realer, truer and higher life indeed :)
Recall that morality originates in the habits or behavior habits of a person or group. Thus, according to our customs and behaviors, we are building our "way of being" throughout our lives. Because human life is a project, that is, it is not previously determined or defined by something or someone outside the subject that lives. Life is, then, a constant "doing". And morality has to do with that "doing," which is composed of acts, habits and customs and has to do with projects, goals and standards or codes that somehow guide our lives.
since we are born we are in this process of becoming our own authority. When you were born, you were 100% dependent on the adults around you, and there are many reasons why this happens, and it is really, perfect that it is so. You needed to depend on 100 of others to receive from some place the information that would later allow you to take care of yourself.
I tell you that sometimes this area of "laws, morality, rules and authority" becomes very rigid and exploitative, and it generates a drastic or punitive authority, which does not allow us to enjoy or explore life. In psychoanalysis it is known as Super Yo, in other currents it is your inner punitive Father or your rigid beliefs about life.
And speaking of external authority, imagine for a moment what would it be like to change the term authority for guidance, teacher or inspiration? That instead of needing to have "bosses or authorities" under which to govern, follow people who inspire you the highest values you aspire to in life?
Indeed, morality is the rule and law, and others act as guides to help them live better and wiser. Authority can be individual under the over-arching universal authority of morality which is not simply a guide, but other people can be guides to to teach about various aspects of life that optimize reciprocal cooperative living.
I think the other side of the coin is responsibility. The reason that so many people actually prefer to follow outside "authority" is because they simply don't want to take responsibility.
As an example, if you don't check your bank statement, you might get fleeced. Many people either can't be bothered to check their bank statements, or they can't bring themselves to do it, for fear of what they might see there. So they leave themselves open to being fleeced.
Oh, absolutely. Freedom requires a lot of responsibility, it;s easier to give away from and abdicate personal responsibility to another...
It's a bugbear of mine. I honestly think that if more people could bear to take more responsibility, that would be the biggest step towards freedom for humanity! Ah, dream on I suppose...
Where have all the wise men gone, the natural leaders who have gained respect for their understanding of reality? We are living in a post truth world where everything seems to have been turned on its head. There is no longer any respect for ethics, morality or indeed reality.
Comedy is hate speech, men compete in woman's sports and the truth is whichever lie can be repeated most often by the greatest number of celebrity voices.
Post-truth subjectivist relativistic solipsistic marxism twilight zone
Through the decades authority figures have lowered the bar of credibility and many have abused the power given to them. There is only one authority and truth that we all will answer to when we check out from this world. And those who have been placed in authority over us will have to do the same. Thanks @krnel.
The reality of life, we know a lot of things are not right but we follow blindly. People often deny themselves the privilege of living right.
Being authentic, real and genuine, is to be the author of our own life, in alignment with reality and principled living, which maximizes accomplishing of our goals in reality.
The world has changed from being real and living authentic to trying to live someone else's life and working towards accomplishing other people's goals instead of theirs.
This has always been the African way which our culture teaches, we lives our lives base on the morals of well respected individuals which the people follows .
For socrate understanding reality and gained reputation through then he was able to breed good students like Aristotle who followed his steps to actualize those reality
People need to follow the teaching to verify it, not simply follow the teacher ;)