The Wrecking Ball

Understanding Authority Part I

Bruce A. Fletcher, PhD

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Authoritarianism and Authority

“Authoritarianism and authority are related as sickness is to health. Authoritarianism is a pathological caricature of authority. Authoritarianism is sick compensation for weakness; authority is a healthy expression of strength. Authoritarian people stifle freedom; authority requires freedom to make it work. Authoritarianism works only when people surrender their own wills; authority works only when people give free and critical consent.

“Fear of authority is, in our time, actually a fear of authoritarianism, a confusion that cries for cure.”

Source: Lewis B. Smedes, Mere Morality: What God Expects from Ordinary People (Eedrmans, 1985), 75.