Authority as an Illusion

I'm not sure what board this would go in (Mods feel free to move it if necessary) but I thought I'd share it, its an essay I wrote addressing the nature of authority and how the idea that one human being has authority over another is all an illusion...


Authority as an Illusion

All authority is an illusion. You were born into this world naked and shivering a being free of all social tethers, all norms, and all authority. You were cared for, if you were lucky, by a loving pair of parental units or the equivalent of such. Your parents, due to your helplessness and lack of knowledge, asserted that they had authority over you but the very existence of such a thing as authority is refuted by nature itself. This authority actually stems from a lie, it is a carefully crafted illusion. You are not under the authority of your parents, you are, at least until you reach a certain age, under their control in that they are bigger and stronger than you and can use physical force to form an illusion of authority. This can be illustrated when a disobedient child gets their hand slapped or receives a spanking for doing something the parents deem as “wrong”. Corporal punishment has become less and less common but the illusion remains essentially the same.

However, simply because the authority is an illusion does not mean you should disregard your parent’s advice. If you are lucky you have one or more parent who seeks only the best for you and therefore while their authority may be, at its root, an illusion, it may still be in your best interest to follow their teachings or advice as often times they do know what’s best. This is not always the case however, sometimes parents can be devious or dark individuals seeking to bend or manipulate, remember it is ALWAYS your choice whether to obey or disobey and only you can determine whether to maintain the illusion of authority or break away from it. Everyone has a choice for every decision, remember, YOU ARE ENTIRELY FREE.

In order for the illusion to work you must believe in it, this idea is not without precedent. Every time you’ve seen a magic trick, watched a movie, or ridden a roller coaster you are buying into an illusion. While on the roller coaster you feel as though you are in danger, you get a thrill, but in the back of your mind you know it is an illusion which allows you to enjoy the ride rather than being stricken with abject fear. A similar thing is at work with authority which allows you to believe that certain people or ideas have authority over you and at the same time in the back of your mind you still believe you are free.

Often times Power is abused and those in power gain an understanding of the way the illusion works. Sometimes they use this understanding to manipulate the system and increase their wealth, power, etc. Power stems from both wealth and authority, but BOTH are an illusion. Wealth has to do with money and money is based on ancient principals typically involving valuable rare metals such as Gold and Silver. These rare precious metals are scarce, meaning they are of limited supply compared to other resources/minerals/metals. This scarcity is the source of their worth and it is the reason they were used as currency for thousands of years. The Monetary Illusion became complete when Gold and Silver stopped backing the currency and now faith alone, faith in the illusion itself, is all that holds the Dollar from total destruction. This is evidence of how an fantasy can be accepted as real, as though the entire world is sharing in the same dream.

Authority is typically maintained by Control, this control can come in several different forms, but mainly it is divided into three categories.

Control by Force and Control by Psychology

The first types of control were likely executed by Force, one human subjugating another using their superior muscle mass or physical prowess to force someone under their power. Once under their power the authority figure uses psychology, or the threat of Force to maintain the control that the original Force created. Control by Psychology has proven to be the most potent form as the human mind often makes the consequences of violating authority seem worse than the actual consequences would be. The mind makes the fear of punishment more horrific than the punishment itself.

Guilt and Fear are often employed by one of the oldest forms of authority, Religion. Religion is known for instilling fear and guilt in both believers and non-believers, fear of eternal punishment or of being shunned by the rest of the community and guilt created by every slip of the tongue and every deed a given religion deems as “Sin.” This is Control by Psychology.

Religion is a form of Authority that has its basis in consensus, which leads us to the third form of control.

Control by Consensus/Majority

Control by Majority likely has its roots in the very ancient societies and tribes of early human history. Agriculture had arisen and people relied on the sun, moon, and stars to predict the seasons, failure to ignore the celestial signs could lead to massive famine/starvation and it is during this time that the strange lights in the sky began to be personified as gods and goddesses (the origin of most, if not all, religion). During this time unity and conformity were almost necessary for the survival of the whole and so the human beings often had to sacrifice their individual freedom for the benefit of a Majority, for the benefit of everyone. Sometimes the entire tribe would appoint one man or group of men as leader and give that man/group authority. This is Control by Consensus. It is the same principal, remarkably enough, that American government is based on, although the Founding Fathers had a much more complex version that mixed the best elements of Democracy (rule by Majority) and a Republic (rule by Law/the people). The basic idea was the same, appointing a leader (in this case a Congress and a President) and giving them Authority. The truth is that in America the People themselves are meant to maintain the CONTROL and therefore be the true holders of the authority, the ones that they have appointed are carrying out our will. So WE the People bestow upon them the authority to make the decisions we want and when they disobey we have rights of impeachment and even insurrection, if need be, to set straight the government.

Authority and Wealth Misused, Dangerous Illusions

Much like the illusion of parental authority the illusion of governmental authority can be for the best, it can be to the benefit of all if the system is kept working properly, but it is a thin line to walk, the illusion can be easily abused. This is the case today as the super-wealthy have usurped the appointed representatives of our American government. The illusions have become dangerous and have been used to uphold the Greed and Tyranny of the super-rich while the poor suffer and starve. The most dangerous aspect of this is that the people of the world, at least those in this country, seem to have forgotten who they are, indeed they seem to have forgotten that this all an illusion. They seem to think that the power is real, or at least, their minds have made it real. Like a real like Matrix of control and tyranny the people have fallen under the shadow of these Global Elites. But there is no cause to abandon hope so long as we remember that WE ARE ALL FREE, we are born into this world free and there is no law, no control, no power and no authority that can say otherwise. I for one will not allow this society, which is built upon deceptive illusions, to manipulate me.

The Real Jesus - How the System Defends Itself

The system is a lot like an organism and when threatened it will fight back, violently if necessary. There have been those who question Authority, who question and doubt the status quo and try to explain the truth to others, typically the system destroys them like white blood cells eradicating a disease. Jesus (whose real name, as far as Historians can tell, was Yeshua, I shall refer to him as Jesus due to the familiarity everyone has with that name) was one such “trouble-maker”. Despite what you may have been taught in your Sunday school Jesus was quite the rebel and revolutionary figure, though the Revolution he preached was a non-violent one it was seen by the religious establishment of the day as a very dangerous one. What Jesus taught was that you didn’t need a middle-man to practice a religion, you didn’t need to see your priest or repeat any of the rituals that came along with a religion, all you really needed was love and peace. According to Jesus YOU WERE YOUR OWN SAVIOR, you needed only practice peace, love and compassion and find the inner light within to set yourself free, you didn’t need to go to Church or pay tithe. The Religious authority of the time were infuriated with such an idea and they were further aggravated by the types of people Jesus had chosen for his cultural revolution, the lowest rung of the ladder, whores, thieves, and even tax collectors. It was the rich, who valued currency more than love and life, who were going to be the ones struggling to get into Heaven. Jesus poked a whole in the religious authority of the day and for that the system rejected him and he was brutally executed.

This is the trend. Ghandi, Martin Luther King Jr., Kennedy, etc all questioned the status quo and all were put down by the wavers of the Hypnotist’s watch, the weavers of the deceptive web of Authority. Many times seemingly innocent individuals might rise up in defense of the Illusion, as the Matrix said they are “so hopelessly dependant on the system that they will fight to defend it”.

How to Break the Chains

The easiest way to break the chains of control and authority is to declare yourself free. Become the master of yourself, free your mind, and forget your fear.

reply to post by Titen-Sxull


well thought out essay i liked this, much of this rings true to to me.

According to Jesus YOU WERE YOUR OWN SAVIOR, you needed only practice peace, love and compassion and find the inner light within to set yourself free, you didn’t need to go to Church or pay tithe.

isn't Jesus an authority though? didn't the Father give him authority?

"I am the Way the Truth and the Life"
"No one comes to the Father But By Me"

I'm not trying to push a christian agenda fwd, i just thought id ask since you mentioned Jesus.

i think im asking.. can there be authority without the illusion?




[edit on 13-9-2009 by overide]

reply to post by overide


But that's exactly it, he wasn't saying only he was the way, he was saying 'I' as in the divine self we all have inside. He was saying that no one can go to the father for you, in other words no middle man or priest can secure your salvation, only "I". That idea goes right over the heads of most Christians because they take the doctrine at face value and listen to what they are told by pastors and priests rather than digging deeper.

I don't think authority can exist without illusion, unless we're talking about the authority of the laws of physics (and the more we discover about those the more we see that most of them aren't absolute and can be bent/broken)...

[edit on 7-10-2009 by Titen-Sxull]