<p>"Sometimes it is necessary to challenge what people in authority claim to be true. Although some respect for authority is, no doubt, necessary in order for any group or organization to function, questioning the people in charge-even if they are experts or leaders in their fields-makes us better thinkers. It forces all concerned to defend old ideas and decisions and to consider new ones. Sometimes it can even correct old errors in thought and put an end to wrong actions."</p>
<p>Assignment: Is it important to question the ideas and decisions of people in positions of authority? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.</p>
<p>In order for people to grow intellectually and create a better, more well informed society, they must question the decisions and ideas of those in positions of authority. Throughout history, we have seen entire civilizations ignore and try to justify atrocities that their leaders committed because they have too easily accepted the idea that those in power are always right, simply because they have authority. This is rarely the case, especially when considering cases such as the Holocaust, which might have had a different outcome, had the masses of everyday people questioned those in authority.
We see the idea of questioning the ideas and decisions of those in authority having created more free thinkers and a better society in the case of the Holocaust. The main authority figure during the Holocaust, Adolf Hitler, would not have been so successful in carrying out genocide, had it not been for the multitude of Nazi soldiers that supported him. Today, many historians would argue that the main reason why Hitler was so successful in carrying out the crimes that he did was because of his "great" leadership abilities. Looking back, we see that if the majority of those who helped bring Hitler to power, the Nazis, had questioned their leader's heinous ideas and decisions, there most likely would have been a huge decrease in the amount of people who had supported him. If these people stopped and looked beyond Hitler's orating abilities, they certainly would have realized that what their leader was preaching may not have been such a "great" idea. Had these people been raised to question authority and people in power, they may have lessened the number of deaths of innocent people carried out by Nazi Germany.</p>