Okay, it’s been quite a long time between my last post about truth and now, but it’s better than nothing. If you’re lost, you’re in a safe place. Last time, I was talking about truth being nothing but a point of view, taking quite a chunk of text from a book by Wallace Wang titled, “Steal This Computer Book 4.0: What they won’t tell you about the internet”.
While I still intend to publish chunks of text from this very book, I still want to iterate that my intention is not to take any credit for the content. I just like to share what I read to those who care at all about what intrigues and interests me. As the post title suggests, this post is about questioning authority. I’ll continue with the excerpts which I think are good to share:
“To truly start thinking for yourself, begin by questioning authority. This doesn’t mean rebelling against, overthrowing, or ignoring authority. It means listening to what any authority figure or organization tells you and discerning their motives. As every con artist knows, the first step to getting someone to do what you want is to hide your own motives and pretend that you really want to help them instead. Questioning authority means nothing more than asking how the authority figure or organization will benefit if you do what they tell you to do.”
I like the way he thinks. Would you believe that most authority figures take questions about their motives as an attack? Well, any human-being would, too, but the point is that an authority figure should have no problem with answering such a simple question as to why they want what they want out of you.
“There are three possible reasons an authority figure or organization would tell you something:
- It really is for your own good.
- It’s all they know at the moment.
- It’s really for their benefit, not yours.”
Pay attention there. It’s important to be able to discern when they are telling you any of those possibilities.
“Parents tell children to eat vegetables not because they want to torture their kids or make them miserable, but because eating a balanced diet is actually good for kids, no matter how distasteful they may find broccoli or spinach to be. Similarly, governments tell their citizens how to survive natural disasters or avoid trouble while traveling in foreign countries because that information really can help people survive. Parents may benefit by having healthier kids and saving money buying carrots and celery instead of hamburgers and french fries, but financial motives are secondary to their children’s health. Similarly, governments may benefit from having live taxpayers rather than dead citizens, but that’s secondary to the real motive of basic public safety. More often than many people might like to admit, authority figures and organizations do have your best interests at heart, which is why blindly rebelling against all forms of authority is ultimately as counterproductive as ignoring traffic lights to protest government interference and then getting hurt—or hurting someone else—when you crash your car.
Of course, authority figures and organizations don’t always have such pure, altruistic motives at heart. That’s why it’s important to question authority. Many times, the authorities really don’t know what they’re doing. If you follow their orders without question, you’re the one who will suffer any consequences, not them.”
Whoa…
“More frightening is when authorities act purely for their own benefit while stealing, injuring, or killing the rest of us. Dictatorships throughout history, in countries such as China, Germany, Afghanistan, North Korea, Iraq, Zimbabwe, Japan, Iran, Cuba, Russia, and Saudi Arabia, have routinely executed or imprisoned anyone who questioned their authority. Under such dictatorships, the citizens are supposed to do all the work while the authorities enjoy all the money (which is something most Americans can empathize with when income tax time rolls around April 15, just before Congress votes itself another pay raise and takes one of its many recesses).
Such blatant abuses of authority are perpetrated by individuals and corporations as well as by governments. For instance, consider Jim Jones, who founded the People’s Temple as an urban Christian mission that offered free meals, beds to sleep in, and even jobs, along with a sense of community. In San Fransisco, where the group settled, city officials such as Mayor George Moscone, Supervisor Harvey Milk, and Assemblyman Willie Brown supported Jones (in return for the support of the People’s Temple at election time). Even newspapers, including the San Fransisco Chronicle, praised Jones and his People’s Temple for setting up drug treatment clinics, child care services, and senior citizen programs.
Such benevolent actions masked the megalomania of Jim Jones, who ultimately led his church to Guyana, where he physically and emotionally abused his followers before ordering them to commit mass suicide by drinking cyanide-laced fruit punch.
Tobacco companies may be spending money on anti-smoking advertisements, but they’re still in the business of making and selling cigarettes. The United States may feel justified in using military force to promote democracy in Iraq, but it has yet to send in the Marines to promote democracy in Saudi Arabia. Islamic radicals may claim they’re fighting pro-Western dictatorships in the Middle East, but they’re still blowing up innocent Muslim women and children with their car bombs. Mother Teresa may have had her critics, but none of them can deny that she tried to do good. Jim Jones had his supporters, but none of them can deny that he deliberately did something bad.
Too often, good actions can mask bad intentions. That’s why you need to question authority. If you don’t, you may become part of the problem, or as the American legal system likes to put it, ‘an accessory to the crime’.”
Isn’t that what we don’t want? To become a part of the crime? Wow, Mr. Wang has some very interesting, but very true points about those in positions of authority. They might not all be evil, but those that are can sure mask their intentions very well. So, some interesting points to close this post with are: don’t believe everything that you see and hear from the media or otherwise, don’t just take someone’s word for the truth, and always, always, always question—whether out loud or in your mind—the intentions of those appointed with authority over you. ;)
