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appeal
September 2009 
An Appeal to Authority
Donan
My father grew up in the jungle of the Congo. The ever present danger in the jungle is the stuff of which legends are made...and quite a few were part of his childhood.
In my own childhood there was not that much immediate danger, but the possibility and the proactive stance my father took for such led him to teach me that there were occasions where immediate blind obedience was required with explanation forthcoming after the fact. On such occasions the result of disobedience could be, not punishment, but real physical harm from an external source. The same type of command could easily come from me, a child, to him, the grown parent and would be considered just as valid. Essentially if someone authoritatively yells "don't move!" the best response is to not move until an analysis of the situation has revealed the reason.
This mechanism for blind obedience is markedly different from a quashing of questioning in general. Asking "Why?" was always encouraged with a timely response whenenver possible. Sometime the response was merely that "why" would come to light in time if I watched for it; other times the response was to think it through, consider logical conclusions from what i already knew, and tell him why.
Unfortunately in much of western society, particularly in the educational system, "why?" is often squelched and an appeal to authority is taught as the valid and preferred rationale for rejecting the question. When my father came to the United States at age 12 the science text book said that fern trees were extinct--but my father had seen forests of fern trees. His teacher appealed to the authority of the text and thereby chose to remain ignorant--but worse than that, she further attempted to teach that an outside authority, which should not be questioned, should be given preference over the personal observations of an assumedly uneducated, uninformed child (or adult). Children who buy into this philosophy, as they blindly accept the authority of the teacher, grow into adults who no longer think for themselves.
The truth of ‘truth' is that anything believed through blind reference to an outside authority is not real personal truth--that is, at best you have only the understanding that you trust the authority--but you still don't know the thing not in question. The point is that if you hold to a concept because someone else tell you it is truth (or conversely that it is not truth/fallacy to believe it), you are not holding to the thing, but rather it is the someone else that you are generally holding as true; the thing, then, is mere dogma and does not qualify as truth in your own understanding.
Such is the nature of an appeal to authority--you can take my word for it ;-)
Cheers,
Donan
Access: Public
Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence and fulfills the duty to express the results of his thoughts in clear form. ~ Albert Einstein
Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions. ~ Albert Einstein
It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry. ~ Albert Einstein
So there! I've gone and quoted an “authority” for ya!
Phillip Zimbardo, the social psychologist who researched prisons and the human response to imprisonment (whether guards or inmates) (Zimbardo's famous Stanford Prison experiment) postulates that blind obedience to authority is not a character weakness of only a few people, but rather part of the general human condition. He says this blind obedience can be triggered by certain approaches (like Hitler's propaganda, for example, or even just a need for peer acceptance), and that we must be aware of this and watch for this response in ourselves.
LOL…I would offer the skin of a grapefruit in gratitude.
Grapefruit skin has lots of antioxidants in it, so…thanks! LOL!
Many (at least those who have survived it) can attest to my obscure humour–which is often judged by the volume of groans if not, on rare occasion, laughter. No actual grapefruit were injured in the making of this rather excruciating pun. To the rest of you, my apology ;-)
Zimbardo here makes an assumption here that i would not–that blind obedience is a character weakness. I would rather say that it is a conditioned response, a subtle brainwashing (assuming an otherwise healthy brain), perhaps through conditioning which relies on exploitation of insecurities and fears, but I think it a stretch to draw inference on the character of an individual based on the presence or absence or such. I would agree with him that it is well worth guarding against in ourselves.
Zimbardo does correctly identify some character weakness that can be exploited utilizing whatever strong encouragement towards blind obedience might be employed, but, though the difference is subtle, it‘s not really a chicken or the egg question. This is why there are those in many test groups who, through strength of character will not conform despite the pressure. They often end up as the example that pushes others past the constraints of their conscience and into suppressive self-interest. It is not necessarily a question of questioning authority, but rather a battle between survival (e.g. the Nazi soldier committing unspeakable acts as ordered), or sometimes simply a desired life (peer pressure towards a corruption of values) and personal moral constructs. In such cases blind obedience is the excuse after the moral dilemma has been rationalized away.
We should question everything, especially that which comes from those who speak out of authority with particular attention to our own inner voice and it’s place of–too often unquestioned–authority in each of us…and we should teach our children to do the same. My father never forbade me (or his students) to question him, rather he encouraged it constantly, and that lesson, that everyone can be wrong and likely will be on some occasion, was far greater than whatever teaching I might have questioned at any given moment.
SUPERB zBlog post
I recollect that it was my english literature teacher who taught me the lesson that I should - think for myself - & that ALL criticism was valid as long as it was constructive - so in that context I would say - the character weakness - IS that the route of blind obedience should not be taken when appropriate, as a manifestation of our duty to survive the moment to take responsibility for the next.