I’m 51 and I know it’s the usual trope that people are supposed to become more conservative as they get older, but the longer I live it becomes clearer and clearer to me that many (obviously not all) people who “speak with authority” on a variety of of subjects are simply repeating what they were told without questioning the original “authority”, or are pulling assertions out of their rear end in the hope that everyone will play along.
I’m a lot more skeptical of authority than I was when I was younger.
It’s not so much that I’m questioning authority any more or less than I used to, it’s just that I’ve become more cognizant of when the other fellow is in a position that might pressure him/her towards a particular bias. Say (to give a recent example) when a spokescritter for the fishing industry states that there is no overfishing problem.
…or when the weather forecaster on the local news station says that the forecasted snowfall is one to two inches “but it could be as much as a foot! Stay tuned for developments!”
Less… but I’m 24. That might have to do something with it.
But I LOVED authority as a teenager, and never really rebelled or anything. Then after college, it’s been declining, though I’d still say my respect for authority is certainly higher than the average persons.
It isn’t so much that I respect authority any more or less but I realized that is just a bunch of games that you can learn to play better over time. For instance, I used to be terrified of the police when I was 16. Now that I am 36, a lot of the officers are younger than I am and I can always talk myself out of a bad situation by acting in the way I know they want me to and giving them subtle cues that I respect their authority even if it isn’t true. Almost the reverse is true at work. When I was in my 20’s, I just assumed that I could do a good job and everyone, including my bosses would notice without any additional effort on my part. That isn’t really true in much of corporate America. The people that send constant ‘status updates’ but do very little real work are the ones that get rewarded so I have learned to respect that a little more and learn to play that game.
I respect authority less than I used to, but I’ve learned never to take a stance of open defiance. It never works (that’s why they call it ‘authority’). It’s far wiser to appear complacent while subverting the system in your favor.
At 47, I may have a healthy fear of what the “authorities” are capable of, but my respect is down to zero and would be in minus figures if that was allowed.
All “the authorities” are interested in is maintaining their authority; they don’t give a shit about any individual unless they have “clout”.
I don’t know, actually. All I really want from authority at this point is for it to leave me alone. I don’t think for a second they know better for me than I know for myself, but I recognize that everyone acting like anarchists wouldn’t benefit society overall.
36 - I am careful around those in authority, but I have definitely been disillusioned as to whether that makes them smarter/better or whatever. It just means they have “the badge” or “the title” that gives them the power. I used to think that “surely we wouldn’t give authority to someone that hasn’t earned it”. Heh - wrong again.
I act respectful to them, but I don’t (in the depths of my mind) respect them necessarily.
Just to be clear some responses seem to be centered mainly on the police or related LEO type authority with immediate coercive powers. Certainly police are included in the realm of “authority” I am talking about, but I’m also talking about political, social, spiritual, and even (to a more limited, but noticable extent) scientific authority. It’s all looking more and more shopworn the older I get.
It’s easier for me to actually obey authority than when I was younger. But the older I get the stronger my opinion gets that “authority” is unintelligent, uncaring and ignorant and in place for the purpose that all does not devolve into chaos.
Well, it largely depends on the authority, I guess. But in general, I think, I’ve become more respective of authority as I’ve gotten older. When I was young I guess I thought that people in authority were just frauds who were using their position to push people around. As I’ve gotten older I’ve certainly see that be true in some cases, but I’ve also seen that a lot of people are in positions of authority because they’ve spent a large amount of time gathering experience, knowledge and expertise in whatever their area is, and are in fact better at coming to correct conclusions in that area then someone who just knows the general basics behind whatever it is.
By and large, I think our society as a whole has gone from being perhaps overly respectful of authority to being needlessly or unreasoningly suspicious of it, to the point where there’s a decently sized set of people who will disbelieve information based purely on the fact that it came from experts or authorities in the field in question, and view knowledge and experience as a liability.
As my own authority grows, I see how a lot of authority doesn’t really have a good grasp of the facts.
However, I also see a lot of legitimate authorities whose opinions carry weight and value get blithely disregarded by folks intent on pursuing their own agendas.
So it’s amixed bag. Overall, I’m less impressed with authority, but wish folks would at least listen w hen authority speaks.
I’m a lot less apt to do something that gets me in trouble; as an adult, the consequences are pretty dire in comparison to being a teenager or child.
On the other hand, I have a lot less respect for authority, in the sense of I don’t have a lot of respect for many cops, judges, etc… the cops tend to be small-penis guys with power trips in many cases, and judges are just politicians for the most part, and I’ve seen too many truly incompetent people elected because their skin was the right color to have a lot of respect for that guy behind the bench. Their legitimacy in my eyes has gone way down as a result of the low standards. Same goes for politicians; many are dirt-stupid, but well-connected, good looking and power hungry. Why should I respect them because they managed to fool a bunch of people?
When I was a boy, there were bumper stickers that said “Question Authority”. I thought that was just a hippy thing, and I laughed it away.
As I have got older I find that question authority is a pretty good principle. The store clerk who says you can’t have things your way but has no idea why. The local political official who sees herself as chosen to decide, rather than elected to represent. Many other cases of people who state rules that you must follow, but have no idea why those rules are in place.
If you push back a little, in a reasonable way, and just challenge the rules, you will find that they really don’t apply to everyone. They only apply to people who don’t challenge the rules.
If your issue needs to be kicked up to the next level you will often find that you get better cooperation and a solution. No one wants to tell the boss/supervisor that you are passing a problem on to them, that you could have solved. And most of the people who will quote the rules don’t really like them, or care.
The expression is that ‘the squeaky wheel gets the grease’. You don’t have to be rich or influential, you just have to push back.
So in answer to the OP, I do not respect authority. I try to make sure that they respect me. It is not a case of wanting conflict, I don’t like conflict. But it is a question of making sure you get the services you pay for and keeping your rights.
