When I was young, people generally submitted to every sort of authority figure. Be they doctors, teachers, parents, government ministers, civil servants or police officers, we did what they asked us to do because obviously we were ignorant young dimwits and they were older and wiser.
That attitude slowly caved in and people started to question authority figures and the idea that they knew best. Did they really know best or were they fallible individuals who could get things horribly wrong as well as totally right?
Confidence in experts has been shaken by a constant succession of disasters and blunders. Like the inferno at Grenfell Tower, which was covered in inflammable cladding. Like incompetent surgeons who leave patients in agony. Like houses that are knowingly built on flood plains.
Bit by bit automatic respect for authority figures has drained away as people got the confidence to challenge what they said. And quite right too. Instead of assuming they won't be questioned, they have to justify their opinions and take people's scepticism into account.
That questioning can be overdone of course. Those people who say they never trust an expert and rely on their own judgment are taking distrust too far. They're often grossly misinformed and horribly wrong themselves.
We need a happy medium where the opinions of experts aren't instantly dismissed but carefully examined and evaluated before we rely on them.
We do need a happy medium. I think that when we read story after story of corrupt authorities, it’s hard to trust. I wonder if people’s morals are getting worse or if we just learn about it more easily through more media that we are connected to.
ReplyDeleteBijoux: I think it's both. Morals are getting worse because abuse is so easy on social media and because we hear about abuse a lot more.
DeleteA happy medium would be nice. It would require people to think, though. If people took the time for careful examination and evaluation it would be a better world, I'm sure.
ReplyDeleteColette: Yes, a lot of people just don't think, they'll accept total nonsense if for some reason it appeals to them.
DeleteRespect has to be earned and politicians have not public service at the top of their agendas. Maybe they never have. It's just more visible now. Too busy lining their own pockets and appeasing their puppet masters, the theocorporatocracy, We are right to question and follow the money and view it all with a cynical eye.
ReplyDeleteXO
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www: Politicians pretend to be dedicated to public service, but as you say behind the scenes they're often just feathering their nests.
DeleteThe problem has a certain element of self-correction built into it. Here in the US, it largely takes the form of people trusting pastors and talk-radio personalities for medical information rather than doctors and scientists. In the past this meant a few people relying on faith healing and prayer rather than actual treatment; today, millions spurn vaccines for covid and instead seek out horse de-wormer or other irrelevancies. Thus natural selection gets an opportunity to do its job.
ReplyDeleteInfidel: It's alarming how many people are wary of well-established treatments for cancer and are convinced that positive thinking or some herbal remedy or simple denial will do the trick.
DeleteI don't deny the value of established treatments for cancer. I just think they make some people more miserable than the cancer itself. I don't want radiation or chemotherapy to make me sicker than dog. My former landlady had cancer all through her body but she kept right on ballroom dancing right up to the end. I want that.
DeleteInfidel: I agree. My father had radiation therapy for his lung cancer and it made him feel so ill he stopped having it and let himself die.
DeleteThe reality, Nick, is that a lot of cancer treatments don't actually have evidence backing them but doctors want tooffer something and patients want to try something and we continue to lie to ourselves
DeleteKylie: I assume you've done the research and you're right about lack of evidence. And yes, doctors like to please their patients by offering what might be ineffective treatments.
DeleteI tend to question authority until I find they have reached my level and beyond. At that point I let them have at it, or go do more research.
ReplyDeleteJoanne: That sounds like a good principle.
DeletePerception is important. Politicians I had some faith in a few years back don't seem to be the same people now as they were before they fell under the sway of a reality TV show star turned politician. The same goes for a number of scientists that I once respected who now rail online about the stolen election.
ReplyDeleteI have great respect for some local officials, including a couple who have reached out to me on some issues. (Eighteen months ago I had absolutely no involvement in local politics.)
Mike: So many people have fallen under the spell of Mr Stolen Election. I don't know how they manage to overlook the numerous declarations that the election was entirely fair and legitimate.
DeleteI don't have any faith in politicians who wreak the economy on day 1 of their job! I got unclassified in maths, but perhaps even I could do a better job.
ReplyDeleteSx
Ms Scarlet: The economic mess is getting worse every day. And these are the guys who always say "the economy is safe with us".
DeleteI agree with Bijoux, we do need a happy medium. It's difficult to have trust or respect when politicians blatantly lie and CEO's, billionaire companies and authorities get greedier. I think Maggie Thatcher encouraged greed is good.
ReplyDeletePolly: That's true, Margaret Thatcher encouraged the greed mentality. And yes, politicians (and big companies and hospitals and the police) lie quite shamelessly to preserve their reputation.
DeleteMary's comment didn't appear on my post. She said "I agree, we do need a happy medium."
ReplyDeleteMary: People are encouraged to take extreme positions instead of more balanced ones.
DeleteI'm afraid I am sceptical about the majority of authority figures. Even if they start out with the very best if intentions the systems they work in usually corrupt them. Sometimes it is just dirty corruption, straight up. Sometimes the well intended are corrupted and misled by the teachers and mentors they believe in
ReplyDeleteKylie: Certainly well-meaning politicians are corrupted over and over again by the need to always follow the party line even if it's anathema to them.
DeleteRespect has to be earned Nick. I find that kind of deserving cases rare now a days. I find more of the take me as I am kind around. I prefer to test and satisfy myself before I extend my respect to anyone. Classic examples now are our Economists. Please show me one who has proven his forecasts correct or one whose remedies have worked.
ReplyDeleteRamana: Economists are a good example. They make wild predictions on the basis of minimal evidence, or just off the top of their heads. They're all at sixes and sevens over the latest economic crisis, all pretending they know exactly what's going on and happily contradicting each other.
DeleteWe have been lied to
ReplyDeleteToo many times Nick
That lie cancer has infiltrated every aspect of authority
John: A lot of people feel the same as you. Lies lies lies everywhere you go. Politicians especially, with their phoney reassurances and empty promises.
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