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Authority:
Leader, holder of
power, someone with influence over
opinions. There are many kinds of authorities, but two distinctions
are useful.
1. Authorities through power or influence: There are
leaders who owe their leadership in the end to
some kind of military, political or other kinds of
power or violence, all of which are kinds of power, and there are leaders
who owe their eminence to their abilities to influence the ideas of others,
which is a kind of influence.
2. True and false authority: There are real and false
authorities. Real authority is based on real power, force or
knowledge, and is legitimate if claimed in these senses, however misled or
evil the authority may be in effect, while false authority is based on
a pretense of power, force, knowledge or insight, that is in the end based on
the inability of those who are deceived to see through the
deception.
By far the largest part of authority is based on authority about
ideas or opinions, i.e. influence, and is mostly,
when rationally investigated, a false
authority: Even if, say, a medical doctor is honest and says all (and someone
who is honest and does not hold back anything about a subject is rare), then
still the patient lacks the medical and
scientific knowledge to
understand the judgements and recommendations of the doctor.
There are genuine authorities in fields of science and other
knowledge, but
the ordinary following of opinions of ordinary men is mostly based on the
irrational following of leaders, often based on
wishful thinking (to the
effect that Our Leaders and Our Experts are obviously Benevolent and Good men
and women with true or rational opinions, not because the sincere believers in
this can prove this, but because this is what they have been told and like to
believe).
An important reason for faithful following of false leaders in opinions,
politics, religion and
fashions of all kinds is the lack of general knowledge
and education of their publics - many lies and poses of
politicians and priests could have been seen through by their deceived publics if only the
members of the public had given themselves more trouble to become informed
about the subjects they are deceived about by those they believe to be
authorities, or at least more informed about what makes an argument for
something rational and non-fallacious.
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