Authority

I heard a child say, “When I grow up I want to be an influencer.” For many of us the immediate question is, “What is that?”. An influencer is someone who has amassed a large number of internet followers and are self-proclaimed experts on something, style, makeup, animals, virtually anything that younger folks are interested in. Successful influencers can make thousands of dollars every time they post something online. They don’t have to actually have any expertise, they only have to act like they do and be charismatic online. It is one of the reasons misinformation is a huge and growing problem.

As adults, we have, hopefully, reached conclusions about the question, to whom do we grant authority? When we’re kids, society teaches us that parents, teachers, law enforcement, doctors, religious leaders, adults in general, even attorneys, have authority. The children we call “good” are those who gracefully accept the authority of those they’re supposed to respect.

Unfortunately, we eventually learn that everyone makes mistakes and, just because someone is supposed to have authority doesn’t make them right about everything.

I’ve always been amazed that people buy products or make important decisions because an actor says to buy something or even vote a certain way. Actors are professional pretenders who say what someone else tells them to say. Of course, some actors make a serious effort to actually become expert in some field but most of the time that’s not the case.

Recently, I had to make one of those adult decisions that reminded me how serious a matter it is when deciding to whom authority is granted. I changed doctors, what is referred to these days as my “Personal Care Physician”. That decision can potentially affect health and longevity, so it isn’t a minor thing.

No doctor is perfect. Over the years we hope our doctors don’t make many mistakes, but they don’t always get it right. I have a couple of biases that influenced my choice, now I hope I got it right. My new doctor looks old enough to have graduated from high school, probably college, but is still very young in my eyes. I know it takes about seven years after college to have the credentials she has so I have granted her authority to guide me in medical issues no matter how young she looks.

When deciding authority the first question is, does this person have the relevant education and training necessary? The second question is, does the person make decisions based on what’s good for others or just themselves?

When I was in the Army, rank determined authority. Of course, some folks with even high rank are capable of being incompetent. I respect folks who choose to serve but never assume that military rank or training equips someone to make non-military decisions. Like actors, they’re professionally trained to do what someone tells them to do.

Unless we’re willing to let popular opinion guide our life choices, we have to give the issue serious consideration.