"Question Authority"(think for yourself) is it a good or bad idea?

frankiespeakin

What your opinion? Good or bad?

Should we question religous authority only? What about governmental authority? Will questioning improve our chances of survival as a speicies?

I think it will. We need to escape from the narrow reality tunnels that the State and religion pressures us to live in. We have been programed by politicians, school teachers, religion, culture, national corporate owned media and parents to think and see the world the way they want us to think and see the world, it is much better IMO to think for yourself. The State has programmed us to accept dominance by a few as normal, and good, even patriotic , to unquestioningly lay down your life to save the government(rulling elite, and extremely rich's property holdings) or even worse to invade another country and kill those labeled as the enemy, if called upon to do so. Will following such programming bring about a better world? Or more mind numbing enslavement?

I did a litte google search, and here our some quotes that more or less express my views on the importance of questioning authority:

http://www.liberatefreedom.com/question-authority.html

In order to explore consciousness as the source of liberating freedom we must be vigilant in bringing the highest standards of disciplined empirical inquiry to bear upon the process of perception.
Nietzsche defined freedom as “the will to be responsible to ourselves.” This to me means the ability to respond to the instinct for freedom that is innate within ourselves—ability here meaning competence and skill.
In other words, wise discernment and intellectual rigor play vital roles as we open to the contents of consciousness and examine the role of perception as the architecture of reality. And to extract anger and ignorance from “misperceptions of freedom” requires courage, intelligence, and kindness.

http://www.geocities.com/arno_3/intro/

With his famous slogan "Turn on - Tune in - Drop out" Leary encouraged the young generation of the 60s to take psychedelic drugs and question authority.Not so many people know, however, that Leary reemerged in the 1980s as a spokesman of a new global counterculture called the cyberpunks and became one of the most energetic promoters of computers, virtual reality, and the Internet. "No magazine cover story on the [cyberpunk] phenomenon is complete without the septuagenarian Timothy Leary, admonishing readers to "turn on, boot up, jack in" and proclaiming that the "PC is the LSD of the 1990s,"

In contrast to the hippies of the 60s who were decidedly anti-science and anti-technology, the cyberpunks of the 80s and 90s ecstatically embrace technology. They believe that technology (especially computers and the Internet) can help us to transcend all limits, that it can liberate us from authority and even enables us to transcend space, time, and body

Timothy Leary-How to operate your Brain:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5263229526732787208

Liberate Freedom:

http://www.liberatefreedom.com/movie/liberate-freedom-movie.html

REBORNAGAIN

In the theme song from the German version of Sesame Street (years ago, may now still be the case) they sing, "Wer nicht fragt bleibt dumm" Translated it means: "Who doesn't ask, stays dumb." So that being said, in answer to your question, YES...I think we should question any people or organization having authority.

LINDA

nvrgnbk

We must.

anewme

Boy am I a believer now in questioning all authority!

Those who do are less likely to fall prey to all the little dictators everywhere out there!
They are everywhere! In religion, in government, at work, in your neighborhood and sometimes in your own family, trying to control and imprison everyone and everything around them.

Narkissos

There is (of course) some paradox in suggesting that questioning authority is something good or that should be done -- this sets the anti-authority teacher in a self-contradictory position of authority, and his/her disciples in a sort of "double bind".

But we can certainly rejoice when we do break free and when we see others breaking free, too -- even though that may mean, breaking free from our own influence.

Edit: LOL @ nvr who put it more succinctly.

V1710

i haven't thought about timothy leary in a loooooooooooooooong time. i always question authority, sometimes to my detriment (on the job etc.)

nvrgnbk

I heard it once said

Timothy Leary's dead

:(

Undecided

In 50 years all the ones who controll us now will be dead, how do the new controllers get their positions?

Ken P.

frankiespeakin

Of course I didn't say reject all authority or defy or rebel against all authority, merely seriously question authority. What kind of stand we take against authority is another matter, to each his own way as he sees fit, or just. That way we take responsiblity for ourselves.

LongHairGal

Yes, in the interest of survival an intelligent being would have to question authority. To NOT do so would be abdicating your brain and would be a fast path to suicide or extinction, in my opinion. You might as well get lobotomized. Just think of Jim Jones and the kool aid command. You don't want to think? You want somebody else to do your thinking for you, either because you are lazy or you are deceived into believing that other people are better or smarter than you? Well, then you are doomed.

People shouldn't just question what the 'authority' says but they should question the 'authority's' authority! In the case of citizens of a particular country they may not be able to do anything about their 'authorities' (i.e. dictatorships) but they should definitely be on their toes.

LHG

"Question Authority"(think for yourself) is it a good or bad idea?

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