Authority

I was conversing today with a 20 year old former sergeant-security officer at the mail order sporting goods place where I do maintenance full time. He just got a promotion to full time, and is an enterprising big Scandinavian bruiser. He smiled and said thank you.

I asked him if loss prevention was his career goal, and he said he sees real possibilities in the future with our 350 million dollar company, and he one day could well be running it for the entire company.

He commented that he was looking forward to a career in law enforcement, but after seeking how Black Lives Matter protesters hurled verbal abuse into faces of the unflinching officers during rallies, he decided since cops are not respected, it would not be a fun career after all.

We then talked for a minute about how cops as authority figures are now often disrespected, and how it reflects poorly on the young without values, or respect for authority.

Now as an individuator, an individualist, a rebel,  dissenter and  former union activist, I have had my encounters with the police and with authority figures of all stripes.              

But cops have a rough job, and they protect us from criminals and social chaos. In return, they are to be obeyed, or at least treated with dignity and respect, even if we dissent.

We want people to individuate and grow as supercitizens and lawful anarchists. To a large degree, the highly developed and in-charge superego aiding each adult individuator to live a moral life is that internal authority figure that planners of a high civilization seek to instill in each citizen. Where successful, the community of individualists will unite and decide what laws to enact, and obey, and this arrangement, when carefully thought out and implemented, should allow their communities to function smoothly and efficiently.

To whatever degree cops and official authority figures ar            still required, their positions are to be respected, and they are to be obeyed if they tell one to pull over, put one's hands up, or lay down on the ground.

This obedience can be demeaning and annoying, but it is part of what makes society work.

Rogue cops should be fired, tried and jailed, and criminals should be arrested, tried and jailed. And if lethal force is required at the hands of cops to maintain law and order, so be it. Cops represent society so if we cheapen and defy their authority, we cause society to slide into lawlessness and the law of the jungle, and that is intolerable and unworkable.

We all will always have bosses of some kind (we all work for God or Satan, so we even have immortal, spiritual bosses if nothing else).

The people will not tolerate a criminal vacuum for very long. Lawlessness will only go on so long and then a fascist regime rise up, and the strong man at the top will reimpose law and order that is arbitrary, vicious, corrupt and uneven.

Since we must have law and order, let us abide by the Constitution and the rule of law, and obey those in authority that we have so empowered with protecting society--when we encounter them.