<p>Prompt: Is it important to question the ideas and decisions of people in positions of authority?</p>
<p>Today's society is raised to never question what they are told and always be obedient. While this attitude towards life is ostensibly sound (after all, who wants their opinions to be challenged?) it is actually better to questions the ideas and decisions of people in positions of authority, evidenced by several examples from history and science.</p>
<p>While it is a widely accepted fact now that the Earth revolves around the Sun, long ago this idea would have been ridiculed and shut down immediately. Aristotle believed that the Sun and everything in the universe revolved around the Earth and Aristotle's word was law in the scientific world. When Copernicus hypothesized what we know today to be the truth, he was shunned and nobody believed him because his ideas were so outlandishly far from what was widely thought. It was not until years later when Galileo Galilei finally proved, under the threat of treason from the Roman Catholic Church, that the Earth did indeed revolve around the sun, and Copernicus's hypothesis had been correct. Had Galileo not had the audacity to go against the Church and pursue he truth we would still be blundering around today talking nonsense about how the Earth was the center of the universe.</p>
<p>Following authority figures blindly can even be disastrous and is not always the right thing to do, as showcased by a psychological study done in the 1900s. A man would place a test subject in one with a button and another man in an adjacent room that could be seen by a glass window. The subject was told to press the button, which would supposedly give the man in the adjacent room horrible electric shocks. The subject continued to press the button as he was told even though he heard terrible shrieks coming from the other room. This despicable act of violence against a fellow human was only committed because the test subject felt it was necessary to accept what he was told and never to question authority. Had he been left to his own devices, he would not have chosen to administer such pain on the man.</p>
<p>It is imperative that society questions authority at all times. Only then can we progress and correct our mistakes, as in the case of Galileo, and prevents mistakes overlooked by authority figures.</p>
<p>^^^^^^^^^^^^
I timed myself strictly when I did this essay. And I couldn't remember the name of the study so I just didn't include it lol. Would it have been better to include it?</p>
<p>What score would you guys give this out of 6? Or 12 if you prefer that scale.</p>