<p>This is the first one I've ever done so IDK if I sound stupid or anything, be honest. Tips on if I should use different types of examples, etc would be great.</p>
<p>PROMPT:
Is it important to question the ideas and decisions of people in authority?</p>
<p>It is generally accepted and expected in society that citizens at large should be essentially obedient and unquestioning of authority figures and societal traditions, which puts us at risk of falling into the classic societal trap of simply obeying orthodoxy at the expense of what we believe is truly right. Questioning authority is more than important, it is absolutely vital to the development and stability of a society.</p>
<p>History is littered with examples of traditionalism and dogmatic obedience leading to cultural failure and decay of values, such as the segregated South in the United States. No justifiable reason was ever given to legally subjugate black people to whites, but overwhelming cultural pressure and encouragement from authorities such as police and governors created a cesspool of intolerance and bigotry that caused an acute cultural divide in the United States, all because people were unable and unwilling to effectively challenge the authority members at the expense of their societal acceptance. In fact, if leaders such as Martin Luther King never spoke out against segregation and outside authority figures such as the U.S. Supreme Court never intervened in the legality of segregation, the South may never have ended its oppression, because common people wouldn’t speak out against their societal superiors.</p>
<p>Imperial Japan is another striking example of pure obedience gone awry. The Japanese Emperor and government were so culturally revered that nobody could question their decisions, and blindly followed them no matter how pernicious their war-mongering policies were. The mass brainwashing of the WWII-era Japanese people by their authority figures prevented anyone from questioning the government and ended with their country being brutalized by atomic bombs and commandeered by the victorious United States for decades.</p>
<p>Questioning of authority is a highly beneficial aspect in society because it prevents stagnation of ideas. Although it takes a lot of bravery for people to question the contemporary belief system, it is of great value to society. It is hard to imagine modern physics without medieval astronomers proving that the Earth revolves around the sun, and not vice-versa, directly contradicting the absolute authority of the Pope and Catholicism, ormodern biology without its calling into question literal Abrahamic creationism. However, if the authorities of those times would’ve had their way, those revelations would’ve been hidden away and never discussed again to keep the status quo of knowledge in order.</p>
<p>Since we don’t know everything, either in the past or in the present, it is ludicrous to think our culture and knowledge is as good as it can be. The biggest indictment of obedience to the ideas of authorities is that such obedience implies that the authorities do, in fact, know the best way of doing things, and their implicit duty is to ensure that that the status quo of society is never disturbed, while such a trust in contemporary authority is utterly unfounded and short-sighted.</p>