It is not wisdom but Authority that makes a law. – Thomas Hobbes
Locally, they just passed a ban on texting while driving. You already break about half a dozen laws if you text, drive and crash. No reason for yet another law, other than the authoritarians need more rules to make them feel better.
What does that mean?
Think about that for a moment. It would be nice if wisdom wrote the law, wouldn’t it? How many of you can think of some silly law that might have had a reason for existing, but is just silly now? But it’s not just the archaic laws that chafe.
Usually the first thing a person in authority does is fortify their position in power. In the USA, there are all kinds of goofy laws that seem to exist only to give those in power a better chance to stay there. That is not because they are wise, but because they have the authority to make it so.
Why is the difference between wisdom and authority important?
What would the world look like if the wise made the laws, and not just those who have managed to work their way into positions of authority? With wisdom comes compassion, with authority comes rules. With wisdom comes reason, with authority comes mandates.
Which would make for a better society? There is a place in all societies (except for the theoretical Utopian kind) for authoritarians, as there will always be the malcontents or malformed, who either can’t or won’t behave themselves, or otherwise insist on harming others.
But the authoritarians should be for enforcing laws, not making them. It is the nature of humanity to make what they are good at. When a chef cooks, we get grand and complex meals. When a lawyer writes laws, we get grand and complex laws. What do you think we’ll get from authoritarians (either as cooks or lawgivers)? We get rules, mandates, requirements, and enforcement.
Where can I apply this in my life?
There were times in human history when wisdom was scare, and authority was needed to keep us from dying off as a race. Unfortunately, now we have the weapons to kill ourselves off as a race, and the authoritarians are far more likely to do it than would the wise.
This is why I believe it is important to look at our leaders and try to discern if they are trying to lead by authority or by wisdom. With the politics of an election year going strong here in the USA, it’s easy to try to make this about national politics.
Since most of us lack the influence to do much on a national scale, I’m going to ask you to focus on the places where you *do* have some influence. Your local gathering spots (be it a bar, a church, a meeting room, or a club house) are where you have some influence. There, you are among your friends, or at least acquaintances with whom you share something in common.
Any group that’s larger than a few friends is going to start to form a structure, and eventually, a leader will be selected. It may be that someone is the obvious choice, or there might be elections, but in any case, they are most likely be asking for power.
When anyone starts vying for power, I try to remember to ask myself a question. Am I a stepping stone for their benefit, or are they looking at how they can provide the group (or the people the group helps) with benefits? Are they going to lead with wisdom or with authority?
Anything that can be done on a local level to start reducing the power and influence of the authoritarians is, in my opinion, a good thing. As people start to see the benefit of wisdom over authority in positions of power, perhaps we’ll start to see a grass-roots change in how humanity governs itself.
It would be nice if all of this could happen smoothly and without struggle. In some places, it will be easier than in others. But I believe it is worth the effort to encourage the wise to step forward and speak the truth, to challenge the authoritarians, and challenge them to throw out their (often absurd) laws.
Now take a moment and think of the times when you have looked to take a position of power. What were your motivations? Were they the motivations of wisdom, or of authority? Were you looking to provide guidance and help, or to force others to do what you thought was right?
Note that I believe that even the wise must not abandon authority as a tool to use, but they must use it judiciously. An authoritarian uses authority as a tool of first resort, the wise will use it only as a tool of last resort. Therein lies the primary difference, in my opinion.
From: Twitter, undocumented feed (my bad)
confirmed at : http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/t/thomashobb378768.html
Photoby
Happy Birthday to Thomas Hobbes, Born on 5 April, 1588.
It came to me as I was doing a final review of this post that I may have blown the premise of the quote. The post stands well as it is written, but the quote may have meant to say that when a law is made, it is not the wisdom that makes it a law, but the authority (and by extension, the enforcement of it) that makes it a law. Perhaps next year I will come back and revisit the quote and try it this way… Unless you want to take a crack at it in the comments section. 8)
Reblogged this on FILOSOFISK.