"Think for yourself. Question authority."

23/6/10

The band Tool, one of the most influential bands in my life inspired my thinking once again today. The live version of their Bill Hicks inspired song "Third Eye" came on my speakers today and the words of Maynard James Keenan resonated strongly with me once again.

"Think for yourself. Question authority"

I think when previously considering these words, although they had made good sense and meant something to me, I did not realise their full importance. But I sit here now listening to Tool as I write this and I'm beginning to fully consider the implications of those words. So if your willing to keep on reading I'm gonna try and evolve this idea for you.

Lets start this off with a definition of authority a stereotypical way of doing things I know, but in this case I feel it's relevant. A simple google of "define: authority" produced the following results.

Authority: the power or right to give orders or make decisions.
Authority: (plural) persons who exercise (administrative) control over others.
Authority: The legitimate or socially approved use of power.
Authority: The Authority is a superhero comic book published by DC Comics.

Authority then is power. Power in this case, is having command over another. Authority refers to this power itself, as well as, in it's plural sense, those who hold this power; the authorities. Putting this term in context we can see many institutions as authorities; the state, the police, the church, schools and so on. All these institutions can have power over you. You might just think I'm stating the obvious here, and in many ways I am, but what I'm getting at is how often do we question these authorities? How often do we stop and say, "wait a minute, wait a minute, at what point did I say any of these things can have power over me? At what point did I sign something saying that I hereby recognise and consent to your power."

Now clearly the reasons authoritative institutions are accepted by us on a personal level is because they are accepted by society as a whole. These institutions have always been part of your life, you don't question them because there's nothing to question. They are part of society. They are part of the world. They are necessary. Please note I'm not taking a side on whether or not these institutions are necessary or not, I don't know, I'm just putting the idea up for debate.

On a fundamental, basic, biological, natural level we are free sentient human beings capabale of thought and reason. We can think and dream anything, our imagnination, the capacity of our mind, is limitless and it is a basic fact of nature that we can think for ourselves. We think our own thoughts, our thoughts are unique to us and they are completely our own. We have freedom of thought.

However if someone has authority over us and can tell us what we can and can't do then can we ever really think for ourselves? When we've been told since birth that murder is wrong do we think it's wrong because that is our own, personal moral conclusion? Or because the institutions tell us it is? If we ever want to think for ourselves truly, or at least aim for this goal, we must question authority at every turn. And I'm not saying the police are not necessary, I'm not saying the state is corrupt and doesn't look after us I'm saying instead of them telling you why they are necessary or why they are just you must prove to yourself that that is the case.

In my personal experience, the more you question authority, the more aware you become of what is happening in this world. The more aware you become of yourself and the more you find complete absurdities within the powers we allow the authorities to have over us. I am someone who advocates the idea that a woman or man should be free to do whatever they want as long as that action does not harm another or impinge on their freedoms.

Examples of these absurdities, to me at least, have begun to appear everywhere. The fact that marijuana is against the law, when using it does not harm anyone other than yourself and the harm it does to yourself is not anywhere near as great as alcohol. Surely if marijuana is illegal to protect one from themself then alcohol should be as well, likewise if it's to stop people from behaving how they do whilst intoxicated alcohol should be illegal as well. I won't continue this tangent as I could go on for hours on the subject, perhaps I'll blog about it at some point. But here the hypocrisy is completely evident. We are taught that marijuana is bad, we are taught it shouldn't be touched and yet every other commercial on TV is "Bud...Weis...Er".

A second example of complete absurdity in authority is the case of Stephen Gough. Stephen Gough has been in prison for seven years, under public order offences for refusing to put his clothes on. Seriously. Google it.

The third definition of authority as stated above is the legitimate or socially approved use of power. Is it socially appoved because people have willingly said they will allow someone else to have power over them or is it because they were born into this situation and have never thought differently?

It's not a case of to think for yourself, you should question authority. It's the fact that to think for yourself, you must question authority. The truth is no one can make you do something you don't want to. No one has power over you. You are a free human being who is autonomous over his or herself. To quote Detective Charlie Veitch of the Love Police; "you are born free, you will live free, you will die free". It really is as simple as that.

In love

-Tom-