
In Praise of Defiance - samclemens
https://aeon.co/essays/we-should-listen-to-the-defiant-not-diagnose-and-medicate-them
======
gizmo
Authority should be questioned, again and again and again. Not in order to be
an asshole but because of the consequences when we don't:

1\. scope creep. They will slowly become more authoritarian over time:
(legitimate) authority in one area will bleed into (illegitimate) authority in
another area.

2\. they will be unable to deal with defiance. Because they're not used to it
and because to much of their identity is intertwined with their professional
authority.

There are too many people out there who enjoy exercising their power over
others. Too many teachers who completely lose it when students pull some
harmless prank. Too many police officers who threaten violence when talked to
disrespectfully. The victims of overreaching authority are always -- as the
article points out -- the weaker members of society. Standing idly by in the
face of injustice is not the mature adult thing to do; it's plain cowardice.

All authority should be assumed to be illegitimate, and structures of
authority that cannot justify their existence must be dismantled.

~~~
EliRivers
_Authority should be questioned, again and again and again._

Why should I?

(Old school PLIF ref :) [https://imgur.com/LBrFO](https://imgur.com/LBrFO) )

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laotzu
>But though I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist,
as I continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a measure of
satisfaction from the label. Was not Jesus an extremist for love: "Love your
enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray
for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." Was not Amos an
extremist for justice: "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness
like an ever flowing stream." Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian
gospel: "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." Was not Martin Luther
an extremist: "Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God." And John
Bunyan: "I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of
my conscience." And Abraham Lincoln: "This nation cannot survive half slave
and half free." And Thomas Jefferson: "We hold these truths to be self
evident, that all men are created equal . . ." So the question is not whether
we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be
extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of
injustice or for the extension of justice?

-MLK, Letter From a Birmingham Jail

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coco87
There is defiance and then there is just being an asshole. I think we should
appreciate the difference.

~~~
Intermernet
They're not on the same spectrum. An asshole being justly defiant is not
comparable to a nice person being unjustly compliant.

Put it this way: Many people who history currently regards as being "correct"
were assholes, and many people who history currently regards as being despots
were wonderfully charming and pleasant.

Also, the view of these people over the course of history has changed (due to
many things, some ranging from societal change of opinion to historical
revisionism).

As stated in the article: "Cartwright described a related psychiatric disease,
dysaesthesia aethiopica, that he said was ‘the natural offspring of negro
liberty – the liberty to be idle, to wallow in filth, and to indulge in
improper food and drinks’. It’s easy to roll our eyes at such shoddy logic and
obvious racism. But to many Southern whites, Cartwright’s explanations made
perfect sense. They were used to justify both the murder of slaves and the
recapture of runaways."

Was Cartwright being an asshole? Or were the slaves trying to escape being
assholes? Any person's opinion is unfortunately defined by personal
circumstance, society, and interest.

I'm pretty sure that James F. Blake thought Rosa Parks was just being "an
asshole".

