The Burden of Authority

Submitted by Keith B.

Guest Post by T.L. Davis

The power of authority is an illusion sustained by those who recognize it. This is the truth that this entire nation runs on. It didn’t used to be so. The nation used to run on raw reality, often cruel and brutal, but real and tangible. That’s not to be confused with truth, there is no truth, never has been since Man was created. The only truth is that of the Savior, all else is some version of it concocted for the pleasure of the teller.

Authority is the avenue that power uses to convey it’s strength to the masses. It isn’t of the people, it isn’t democratic, or even legitimate, but it stands behind titles and badges conferred by the people, but not of the people. Very quickly legitimate authority is co-opted and corrupted to the service of the rich and powerful or well-connected.

Intimation is the way the people seek to obtain authority for themselves, by siding with the corrupt, appeasing them, hoping their intimacy will draw them near to the power they’ve forfeited when they recognized the authority of the corrupt. But it never works, no matter how long they pursue it or how many times they try.

The only true source of authority is the people and the actions they take to secure it, to maintain it’s legitimacy and truth. This is an arduous task, too arduous, it seems, because they always seek to unload that burden on those unsuited to it’s maintenance. Those who are incapable of integrity. The opportunity to use that authority for personal gain is a temptation very few are able to resist.

This is why no republic can ever work for very long. It’s the weakness all communists see when they view a democracy or a republic, because they know that all it takes is clever wording and slick marketing to wrest that authority from the people and place it in their bag. It’s a form of theft, but one that is assisted by the victims. It’s just too hard to be as diligent as one would need to be to secure it.

Once that authority begins to make its way down the levels from representative and senator, it becomes the possession of lesser men and women. Even those in whom the authority has rightly been placed become comfortable with the corruption of that authority for their own purposes.

The result is that the people, who have unburdened themselves of the obligation of securing authority, find themselves at the mercy of thousands of others who claim that authority comes from the government. That’s impossible, because the government is of the people, so they divide the government from the people and are free to make slaves of their masters.

One might think I’m speaking of just a republic or a democracy, but this principle of authority coming from the people exists in every form of government, even communism, monarchy and dictatorships. No ruler can rule against the will of the people, for when they’ve had enough of it, the people have always risen up to reclaim that authority, but they always place it in the hands of someone else. Which might be a fool’s errand, but one they choose rather than to carry that burden themselves. This, then, is the conundrum that vexes all of humanity for the ages.

In America, the founders strove for a means of placing that authority continually with the people through periodic elections and more frequently for the House that was directly representative of the people and less frequently for the Senate that was, at the time, directly representative of the state from which they were elected by the legislature. Now the Senate is elected directly by the people, but maintain a sort of superior air and independent spirit, much less concerned about daily issues by which they will be judged, except when their seat is up for re-election.

This is the problem of our republic, the question to be answered before we can reclaim our authority. I bring this up, because the people are finally getting tired of being ignored and forced to obey the dictates of a government gone berserk and will, sooner or later, reclaim that authority. So the question remains, where do we unload that burden this time?

Some have suggested that we never do, that we learn to vote continually for different policies as placed before us. By who and how do they get that position and how can we be sure that they place something before the people that is of the people and not of those who have wormed their way into positions of convenience? Those are questions to be asked and answered, I suppose, but it is the very truth of the matter that it isn’t in the American nature to do government ourselves. We always choose to select someone representative of our place and position to speak for us so that we can get on with our occupations and entertainments. It’s that deadly delegation that has freed us and enabled us to build wealth, pay exorbitant taxes and further society, but it comes with a consequence, one that eventually overwhelms our endeavors.

Before we go into the darkness of reclaiming our authority I think due consideration of what sort of system might better suit us is deserving of contemplation. We are not of one mind, one opinion and those differences, no matter how closely linked to each other we might be, are significant when it comes down to the minute detail of governance.

If there were a fail-proof system that would guarantee freedom and diverse conscience, it probably came closest with the American system of the founding, but as we have seen, given enough time, all things can be corrupted, so we either shorten the time of the validity of the system, or increase the severity and frequency of punishing the violation of that system’s rules, focusing more on those in government than those in the public. If we had a separate judicial branch that focused solely on government employees and officers, that prosecuted lapses and violations of oath we might get closer to truly representative government.

In this sense, every act of usurping authority for one’s personal gain is treason. Should it be punished as treason? Who would carry the burden of authority if any personal benefit accused them of treason?

These questions can be answered by much greater minds than mine, but I do feel an obligation to present the challenges faced by reclaiming authority. Certainly, no one in government right now is capable of carrying that burden. Government isn’t even conducted along those lines anymore. The government is the authority and the people are their subjects and so it has been for a hundred years.

The first step, however, is to start thinking about government in a different way; that those in government who have carried our burden of authority are ill-suited to the task and need to be replaced. Authority is not some benefit of holding office or getting hired to do a clerk’s job, it’s a solemn responsibility that is the citizen’s duty to properly allocate and faithfully maintain by following up with assessments and needed replacements.

When we abdicate this responsibility, we reap what we sew.

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