SHIFT OF AUTHORITY
"They must find it difficult. . .
Those that have taken authority as the truth,
Rather than truth as the authority."
(Gerald Massey, Egyptologist, 1828-1907)
Past Authority
external (gods, holy books, prophets and priests, kings and queens, etc)
"For centuries, humans believed that the real source of authority in the world is not their imagination, is not their collective power, but most human beings thought that authority actually comes from outside, authority comes from above the clouds, from the heavens; authority comes from the gods. The most important source of authority in politics, in economics, in ethics were the great gods, their sacred books and their representatives on earth; the priests, the rabbis, the shamans, the kalis, the popes, and so forth." (Yuval Noah Harrari, Homo Sapiens: A Brief History of Tomorrow)
The direction that authority is moving is away from human beings. We have all sensed that human feelings are not the ultimate test of "rightness" or truth. And yet we have been making decisions based on free choice and human feelings. As time moves forward and there is this merging of infotech with biotech, technology is gradually knowing human beings better we know ourselves. A perfect example is in the medical field. We don't vote on getting a surgery. We rely on test after test that measures so many things and then the decision is made by medical science through the doctor. I'm sure we could never get away with submitting a bill for a medical procedure to a health insurance provider for payment with the rationale that it is what I feel I need.
Present Authority
internal (politics, spiritual, economics, education, etc)
"Then in the last two or three centuries, we have seen a tremendous political, ethical, and religious evolution which brought down authority from the heavens down to the earth, down to humans, and said that the most important source of authority, the supreme source of authority in all fields of life is the human being and in particular it is the feelings and the free choices of individuals. What humanism told humans is that when you have some problem in your life, whether it is in your personal life or whether it is a problem in the collective life of the whole society or the nation, you don't need to look for the answer from gods or from the Bible or from big brother, you need to look for the answer within yourself, in your feelings, in your free choices. And we've all heard thousands of times these slogans which tell us, listen to yourself, connect to yourself, follow your heart, do what feels good to you.
"And these are really the most important ideas or advices about authority for the last two or three centuries. In almost all fields of life, if we start with politics, in a humanist world that believes that we start with human feelings, politics manifests itself in the idea that the voter is the supreme authority, the voter knows best. When we have some big political decision like who should rule the country, who should be president, you don't ask god, you don't ask the pope, and you don't ask the council of Nobel Laureates, you go to each and every homo sapien and you ask, what do you think, what do you feel about this question? And most of the time it is about what you feel about the issue. It is not rational thinking, it is human feelings and the common assumption in humanist politics is that there is no higher authority than human feelings. You cannot come to humans and say, yes you think like that, you feel like that, but there is some higher authority that tells you that you are wrong. This was, of course, the case in middle ages but not in modern humanistic politics and certainly not in a democracy." (Yuval Noah Harrari, Homo Sapiens: A Brief History of Tomorrow) Another example that he uses is that beauty is ultimately in the eyes of the beholder. The human being, the human eye is the ultimate authority when it comes to aesthetics. He goes on to list example after example.
"Then in the last two or three centuries, we have seen a tremendous political, ethical, and religious evolution which brought down authority from the heavens down to the earth, down to humans, and said that the most important source of authority, the supreme source of authority in all fields of life is the human being and in particular it is the feelings and the free choices of individuals. What humanism told humans is that when you have some problem in your life, whether it is in your personal life or whether it is a problem in the collective life of the whole society or the nation, you don't need to look for the answer from gods or from the Bible or from big brother, you need to look for the answer within yourself, in your feelings, in your free choices. And we've all heard thousands of times these slogans which tell us, listen to yourself, connect to yourself, follow your heart, do what feels good to you.
"And these are really the most important ideas or advices about authority for the last two or three centuries. In almost all fields of life, if we start with politics, in a humanist world that believes that we start with human feelings, politics manifests itself in the idea that the voter is the supreme authority, the voter knows best. When we have some big political decision like who should rule the country, who should be president, you don't ask god, you don't ask the pope, and you don't ask the council of Nobel Laureates, you go to each and every homo sapien and you ask, what do you think, what do you feel about this question? And most of the time it is about what you feel about the issue. It is not rational thinking, it is human feelings and the common assumption in humanist politics is that there is no higher authority than human feelings. You cannot come to humans and say, yes you think like that, you feel like that, but there is some higher authority that tells you that you are wrong. This was, of course, the case in middle ages but not in modern humanistic politics and certainly not in a democracy." (Yuval Noah Harrari, Homo Sapiens: A Brief History of Tomorrow) Another example that he uses is that beauty is ultimately in the eyes of the beholder. The human being, the human eye is the ultimate authority when it comes to aesthetics. He goes on to list example after example.
Future Authority
algorithms (that know us better than we know ourselves)The direction that authority is moving is away from human beings. We have all sensed that human feelings are not the ultimate test of "rightness" or truth. And yet we have been making decisions based on free choice and human feelings. As time moves forward and there is this merging of infotech with biotech, technology is gradually knowing human beings better we know ourselves. A perfect example is in the medical field. We don't vote on getting a surgery. We rely on test after test that measures so many things and then the decision is made by medical science through the doctor. I'm sure we could never get away with submitting a bill for a medical procedure to a health insurance provider for payment with the rationale that it is what I feel I need.
The most powerful things on earth are fictions, stories in our minds, myths. This is how we now rule the earth. It is our stories that organize us into the collective powers that control the earth. (corporations, governments, religions)
Our Source of Authority
So often, we are not aware of our source of authority or our source of truth. Often it is something we have been told, something that has been conditioned into us by culture, something we have unconsciously downloaded from the myriad of powers and influences around us. It is not very often that we do the inner work necessary to discern the competing voices within and come to know what we "know". See, How Do We Know That We Know What We Know?
Jiddu Krishnamurti says that we must deny all external authority in order to follow inner truth. He also talks extensively about how confusing the inner voice is and the need for discernment between a deep resonating truth and conditioning (the “truth” we have been told).
"If we can understand the compulsion behind our desire to dominate or to be dominated, then perhaps we can be free from the crippling effects of authority. We crave to be certain, to be right, to be successful, to know; and this desire for certainty, for permanence, builds up within ourselves the authority of personal experience, while outwardly it creates the authority of society, of the family, of religion, and so on. But merely to ignore authority, to shake off its outward symbols, is of very little significance. To break away from one tradition and conform to another, to leave this leader and follow that, is but a superficial gesture. If we are to be aware of the whole process of authority, if we are to see the inwardness of it, if we are to understand and transcend the desire for certainty, then we must have extensive awareness and insight, we must be free, not at the end, but at the beginning."
"Why do we accept, why do we follow? We follow another’s authority, another’s experience, and then doubt it; this search for authority and its sequel, disillusionment, is a painful process for most of us. We blame or criticize the once accepted authority, the leader, the teacher, but we do not examine our own craving for an authority who can direct our conduct. Once we understand this craving we shall comprehend the significance of doubt."
- Krishnamurti, J. The Book of Life
"The world accepts and follows the traditional approach. The primary cause of disorder in ourselves is the seeking of reality promised by another; we mechanically follow somebody who will assure us a comfortable spiritual life. It is a most extraordinary thing that although most of us are opposed to political tyranny and dictatorship, we inwardly accept the authority, the tyranny, of another to twist our minds and our way of life. So if we completely reject, not intellectually but actually, all so-called spiritual authority, all ceremonies, rituals and dogmas, it means that we stand alone and are already in conflict with society; we cease to be respectable human beings. A respectable human being cannot possibly come near to that infinite, immeasurable, reality."
- Krishnamurti, Freedom from the Known
- Krishnamurti, Freedom from the Known
Reality: Mediated vs. Unmediated
I’ve come to see that religion falls within a spectrum of mediated versus unmediated. This is really a matter of their belief in where true authority lies; within or without. Catholic and Orthodoxy tends to be highly mediated where a person finds meaning through symbols and rituals. The rituals mediate meaning. The order of service, the sacraments, holy days, the priests, the saints (and on and on) mediate meaning for some people. On the other end of the spectrum are the mystics and the quakers where symbols are not used, holy days are internal and practiced everyday throughout the year, priests and pastors are not needed, and truth is spoken from within by anyone as they are inspired.
I’m seeing now that there is another way of seeing. Reality itself can be mediated or unmediated. Some people need stories and myths and books and preachers to mediate the truth from external sources. But some of us must experience reality directly through personal relationships and through direct experience. Truth is something that comes from within, resonating deeply, as if we are remembering what we already know.
The Importance of Discernment
Conflicting authority is a huge problem in our society. People believe what they believe and often do not know why they believe what they believe. I fairly recent mantra for my life has been this: "There is no authentic 'knowing' outside of the context of direct experience and relationships." There are so many influences and competing voices inside us and outside us. All of our lives we are told what to think, what to believe, how to think, what to do, and on and on. If we don't know better, we might end up just following the herd and eventually becoming the herd. Life is all about being me! But if I don't step away and rise above to observe what is going on, I'll never be anything but lost in the crowd, another sheep in the flock. Actually, that is what much of society would like to see, especially the powers that be. Power and control, conformity and submission.“Keep growing quietly and seriously throughout your whole development; you cannot disturb it more rudely than by looking outward and expecting from outside replies to questions that only your inmost feeling in your most hushed hour can perhaps answer.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet
Discerning all authority; outer and inner:
"Having realized that we can depend on no outside authority in bringing about a total revolution within the structure of our own psyche, there is the immensely greater difficulty of rejecting our own inward authority, the authority of our own particular little experiences and accumulated opinions, knowledge, ideas and ideals." (Krishnamurti, Freedom from the Known)
The Quakers have a great example of how to discern truth communally, realizing that life is much too complex to navigate on our own:
Quakers use a process called the Clearness Committee to assist a person to discern a truth, or a leading since there is no "authority" or pastor or hierarchy in many Quaker gatherings. When a person seeks guidance, they turn to the community, a group of trusted Friends gather around a “focus” person and ask honest, open ended questions. No convincing, no leading statements are allowed. The purpose is to help a person access and assess their inner teacher, inner light, and draw out the person’s truth. “No fixing, no saving, no advising, no setting each other straight.”
The Importance of Discernment
“Keep growing quietly and seriously throughout your whole development; you cannot disturb it more rudely than by looking outward and expecting from outside replies to questions that only your inmost feeling in your most hushed hour can perhaps answer.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet
Quakers use a process called the Clearness Committee to assist a person to discern a truth, or a leading since there is no "authority" or pastor or hierarchy in many Quaker gatherings. When a person seeks guidance, they turn to the community, a group of trusted Friends gather around a “focus” person and ask honest, open ended questions. No convincing, no leading statements are allowed. The purpose is to help a person access and assess their inner teacher, inner light, and draw out the person’s truth. “No fixing, no saving, no advising, no setting each other straight.”
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