At the risk of sounding like an anarchist, it has long struck me that respect for authority and contempt for authority are a hair apart.
This is especially true in the election season, as these things depend entirely on whose “side” (a term I use reluctantly) one is on.
The funny thing is that when I was a kid, losers respected (if begrudgingly) the authority of the winners. It’s hard to imagine such a thing now that basic civics has become obsolete.
Of course, now that authority is everything, who needs civics lessons?
I worry that what was once appreciated as “the balance of power” (aka “gridlock”) will be threatened.
Hopefully not by force.
Comments
2 responses to “Respect versus contempt. Which will win?”
why is authority contemptible? Isn’t a big pile cow dung morally superior to a small pile of cow dung because its bigger and stinks more. Anyway that is how I explained it to the judge when arguing over a parking ticket when he said some B.S. to me about majority rule.
Respect has to be earned, it doesn’t automatically accrue to whoever holds the whip hand. Bureaucratic, sadistic incompetent assholes in positions of authority deserve to be shit upon, not respected.
The anarchist position isn’t just lack of respect for authority, authority has no legitimacy, only force.