My View of Authority

When people talk about authority they refer to the justification and right to exert power over other people to achieve a purpose. Usually that purpose is to apply rules to everyone and to make sure people who do not follow the rules are punished accordingly. The question is, what gives them the right to govern others, what gives them the power to dictate laws and why do we follow them when we have our own free will.

The answers are simple, we obey the laws because most laws are just common sense and require us to treat people the way we would like to be treated. Such as the law not to steal as we would not have others take from us – common sense. It is important to obey the laws as otherwise we would be unable to live in a peaceful community where everyone was looting, murdering and disrespecting each other so the laws are in place to make sure that we treat each other with respect, therefore lessening the chance of people revolting and causing havoc. Also, you should obey the law as this shows that you have a sense of rationality and that you like to have order in your life.

On the other hand, some laws may not be applicable when it comes to this period in time as they might have been commissioned many centuries ago and this means that they maybe should not be applied in life today. Moreover, some laws are just plain wrong and are made to be broken – such as, when upholding a law overrides basic human values, then in this certain situation you may be justified to break the law.

This was exposed by a recent tragic case which gripped the nation – young boy drowned in the presence of two community officers, who stood helplessly watching him flounder as it was outside the bounds of their police duty and their training to rescue him; instead they just called the regular officers who were trained rather that jumping in (breaking the law) and saving the boy as they weren’t insured for this. In this case it was morally wrong for them to just stand around watching even though the law was against it they should have done everything humanely possible to save the child instead of getting ridiculed for not helping in everyway that they could.

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Sometimes the laws themselves can be wrong which makes it hard for people to be able to follow them...Sometimes there is no way round a law that you do not agree with and the only thing viable for you to do is just leave the country.

Such as in China where the one child policy stands which many people are against as it provokes abortion – which is against many people’s religions and moral beliefs. This means that lots of people try and break the law and have two children, and if they are successful in doing ...

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