Authority - 1/19/11

For some reason, I've always harbored a bit of resentment for authority.  Anyone who professes to have some sort of power or control over my actions, whether it's an organized religion, government officials, or managers, has and always will bother me on some level.  Teachers and parents aren't really in the same category, because at least you know they usually have your best interest at heart.  But the power a church, a manager, or policeman exercises often feels arbitrary and altogether unnecessary.  Do managers really need to enforce such strict disciplines on their employees in order to ensure productivity?  Is the police force really needed to maintain peace in society?  And is religious belief, instilled within us by a church with its dogmas and principles, a deciding factor on the moral compass of the individual?

As with most of my diatribes, I find it interesting to focus on the more philosophical arguments rather than the pragmatic viewpoint.  Obviously businesses need managers, society needs to be policed, and sheep need their Shepherd in order for our world to function.  But, if we're honest and observant, we can clearly see that the world doesn't really FUNCTION very well at all.  Something needs to change, and maybe a big part of the problem is our need to cast away old institutions and archaic belief systems and collectively GROW UP!

Take the God of the Old Testament (or Yaldabaoth, in Gnostic thought....the Mad Creator who rules over us with an Iron Fist).  He's an arrogant, petulant, jealous Deity whose volatile temper is surpassed only by His wrath.  Why did His characteristics change so completely in the New Testament, where He's seen as forgiving, loving, and the only path to salvation and inner peace?  Gnostics believe that Jesus is literally referring to a different God, the True Source.....as opposed to the Demiurge.  But perhaps it was simply that in the thousand of years between books, humanity itself had changed.  We transformed our notion of who God was, and so by incorporating a more loving deity into our belief system, our rules of behavior changed....impacting our social structure irrevocably.

We need another paradigm shift, but first we much accept our responsibility as being the masters of our destiny.  We are the ones who are in control, no one will better us or save us but ourselves. Until we've evolved enough as a species to realize that our self-interest is and has always been what's in the best interest for everyone, we'll continue organizing and implementing systems of control that perpetuate inequality and suffering.  Authority is absolutely necessary for the upper class, for the ruling elite, to keep us from sharing the wealth and realizing our true potential.  They need our reliance, our dependence, our almost infantile ability to take care of ourselves in order for them to remain in power.

And just as when we were children, we need our parents until we've grown up and can take responsibility for ourselves.  So, in a way, we also need our Gods, our law enforcement, our rulers, and our governments until we don't need them anymore.  Until we've matured and can take care of ourselves, not because we're told to....but because we must, because ultimately WE are responsible for ourselves and for one another.