Authority
| Authority link (Idea, Statecraft) | |
|---|---|
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| In addition to the standard meaning, "Authority" and "Authoritative" are sometimes used on Wikispooks not as an accolade, but to suggest distrust, reflecting the fact that 'the establishment' often seeks to bolster its power through specious claims of "authority". |
"I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men, with a favorable presumption that they did not wrong. If there is any presumption it is the other way against holders of power, increasing as the power increases. Historic responsibility has to make up for the want of legal responsibility. All power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority."
Lord Acton, 1887, historian and politician[1]
Official narrative
As part of national governments, the official narrative of authorities is that they are established for the people by the people, and that while they may make mistakes, their intentions are basically good. The commercially-controlled media focuses on the metaphor of the "bad apple" rather than the more pertinent topic of regulatory capture - although the latter is mentioned from time to timeTemplate:Cn. Expression error: Unexpected > operator.
Rererences
- ↑ Letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton, April 5, 1887 published in Historical Essays and Studies, edited by J. N. Figgis and R. V. Laurence (London: Macmillan, 1907)