Authority

Obvious? Sure.

Respect for authority is built into our moral foundations as a key evolutionary mechanism for facilitating group dynamics, leadership, and sexual selection.

Hierarchical social organization is closely related to authority. Some philosophers and authoritarians over-emphasize the importance of hierarchy, using the debunked [1][2] pseudoscientific concept of the alpha male to justify acting like an asshole. Social media has turned this into a phenomenon called the manosphere. Jordan Peterson is a psychologist and philosopher popular with these men because he reinforces the importance of dominance hierarchies on the premise that they are "natural" and therefore good.

Authority is Foundational

Jonathan Haidt points out that progressives generally fail to make appeals to our instinct for authority, preferring to focus on other foundations like justice, and see hierarchy as inherently oppressive. This puts them at a disadvantage when it comes to persuasion, since a large portion of the public still responds strongly to projection of authority. This has helped allow things like alt-right neo-fascism and the manosphere to proliferate.

How can we make progressive appeals to authority that fit with our equal justice ideals?

Authority of Expertise

This will take a lot of restoration of trust in institutions, but the authority of expertise is the only real authority we truly have in an age of extreme complexity and specialization. We must be able to trust experts, and their education and experience needs to command authority within their domain.

Authority of Experience

Age has often been used as an excuse to command unearned respect outside of one's domain of expertise. Many young people have been burned when they were told to "respect their elders" but found their elders' expertise lacking. This is especially true in an age of technology, where the young have a significant advantage over the old when it comes to learning and adopting new tech. It is no longer the case that old people are wiser about things generally, when so many relevant things arrived long after their critical periods had closed.

A new model is needed, where we can respect the wisdom of experience, but acknowledge that with age does not necessarily come expertise. What matters is how long you have been working in the domain in question.

While we should still respect our elders in terms of care and dignity, when it comes to advice we should respect experience. Reinforcing this notion through education and ritual the way that "respect your elders" used to be will help solve the kinds of problems we are seeing with younger generations joining the workforce and not being able to take orders and advice.

Authoritarianism

See authoritarianism for discussions of autocratic governance through consolidated power and absolute authority.

Types of Authority

Sociology has mapped the types of authority and leadership styles. This article outlines them.

Authority of Screens

We tend to overestimate how much we can trust people who appear on a screen. In the past, this authority was earned. You didn't appear on a screen without a billion dollar corporation backing you, checking sources, and being held accountable for the information that was broadcast. We have since shifted to an environment where anyone can appear on your screen without any vetting whatsoever. But the old people haven't recalibrated their trust accordingly, and many have taken the contrarian position that the unvetted information is more trustworthy than the vetted. Young people have not been taught modern media literacy because who would teach it to them? You have to know it before you can teach it!

In any case, here are some videos.