Is authority a lost virtue?

Photo by Nicholas Kampouris on Unsplash

‘Wherever there is a man who exercises authority, there is a man who resents authority.’ - Oscar Wilde.

I was reminded of the truth of this statement recently. I was driving back from having taken a walk with a friend (within the 5-K zone), and I was stopped by a Garda.

He had a serious face as he asked me, ‘Where are you going?’

‘I’m going home,’ I replied.

‘Where have you been?’

‘On a walk just round the corner,’ I replied, motioning behind me.

He looked at me silently for several long seconds, and then said, ‘Ok, have a good day.’

He was right.

Was I resentful of this interaction? No.

We are in the middle of a pandemic, and the Garda is authorised to stop people in their tracks to ensure they are abiding by the current Lockdown legislation.

So, authority is not something bygone, it is a reality. In fact it is ever-present during this pandemic. I had just experienced it. And we need it. As long as we co-exist within a society and community, we are always going to need it.

Imagine the scenario of several hundred children meeting together in a space, and trying to maintain discipline without any form of external authority? Impossible. Home-schooling these days is telling us that on a micro-scale.

But is authority just for kids? Let’s face it, as flawed humans in an even more flawed world, don’t we all need it?

We need someone to enforce boundaries

Without boundaries and someone to enforce them, we would have chaos in our societies. We just take for granted the face of authority in our society. When we drive we are handling an instrument that can harm and actually kill someone. We don’t even question the need for some form of authority on our roads, some rules to follow.

We need authority to protect our lives, our property, our families, and ourselves, our lives.

‘Ultimate authority always rests with the individual’s own reason and critical analysis,’ says the Dalai Lama. We need to be on-boarded! We need to try and imbibe authority and transmute it into our own code of behaviours.

Lust for power?

In George Orwell’s famous book ‘Animal Farm’, the pigs supplant the authoritarian farmer and begin to exert an even worse form of authority on the other animals. Yes, deep within each one of us lies a desire for power, a latent lust for authority of the worst kind over people.

Watching how China has managed to recover a semblance of normality in society in the wake of Covid 19 is a case in point. The more one hears about their methods, the more one shudders; tying people to posts with handcuffs, or barricading them in their homes, and forbidding freedom of movement.

It certainly worked. It stopped the spread of a deadly virus. But in some ways, that type of authority brings with it another more deadly virus grounded on suspicion, lack of trust, lack of freedom and above all lack of respect for the person.

Boundaries for authority?

It really hammers home for me the point that authority needs its own set of health and safety guidelines if it is to function properly for us. Authority can be so easily abused. Shouldn’t it exist to serve people, to help them function better as citizens, or within a community, or as members of society.

It cannot be used to manipulate people or make them feel undermined or threatened. For authority to function well shouldn’t it contribute towards the common good?

It’s hard to do that all the time. We are in a competitive society with our embedded insecurities. We are all vulnerable and needy. And of course, it is easy to use authority as a whip to get things done, to make our point, to mobilise people.

Real authority - hidden and silent

I recently met a friend who had just returned from a funeral. She told me that meeting the family reminded her of Máirtín O Direáin’s poem, ’Dignit an Bhróin,’ The Dignity of Sorrow.

The poem speaks about how two people in the middle of a loud raucous crowd say nothing. They are silent, and subsequently, they exude a powerful sense of dignity within the context of this sorrow. It reminds me of what Leonarda De Vinci once told a friend that ‘nothing strengthens authority as much as silence.’

Real authority is hidden and silent, but it is effective. It exists quietly but powerfully in the background, not needing acknowledgement or praise but it is enough for it to get the job done - to serve - a lot like our Gardai in these times…