On Authority: The Blogosphere/Real World Divide

While I’m wildly extroverted now, as an adolescent I was a surefire leg grabber; anytime anyone attempted to engage me with their phony, high-pitched cooing, my eyes would dart from side to side, as I ever-so-coolly began my retreat behind the nearest adult leg that would shield me from their artificiality–usually to the delight of my Uncle Jimmy. He was one of the only ones I trusted; I saw how adults interacted with other adults, and it was different from how they interacted with me. I was suspicious. I was skeptical. I was insulted. I viewed their change of register as an assault on my intelligence.

And so the faintest hints of cynicism toward authority saw it’s early beginnings.

There’s been a lot of talk, lately, surrounding this notion of authority. Just a few days ago, Problogger guest writer Kelly Diels wrote on the topic of authority in blogging, and what, exactly, that even means. She did an excellent job of unpacking how authority is created, even delving into the role of gender in the meanwhile. There were many definitions thrown about, including credibility, trust, rapport, reputation and experience, and, to a large extent, there seemed to be collective agreement. That is, in terms of the blogosphere, anyway.

But . . . what about outside of the blogosphere? What about in the world we live in away from the computer screen? Do the same rules apply? Is authority granted, perpetuated, and respected based on the same qualities?

Take a police officer, for example. What makes him an authority figure? Is it because he’s credible, trustworthy, reputable and has lots of experience? Or is it because we’ve internalized the proposed hierarchy, and have learned to regard police officers as authority figures because we’ve been taught that that’s what we should do? Social order supposedly relies on governing authorities to maintain just that–order–and this is usually understood to be a positive thing. On the flip side, however, it seems that maintaining order, in many cases, is a synonym for maintaining the status quo. For maintaining the power structure. For maintaining the interests of those in power.

That said, the question I really want to get at is whether or not this type of authority is actually authority. Is authority synonymous with power? Is authority nothing more than manufactured status in a uniform? Initially, my first thought was that authority as such, based on power and control, is not what I’d naturally associate with credibility, trust or rapport, hence separating the real-world authority versus blogging authority in my mind. (Although the two categories aren’t mutually exclusive.) However, later it occurred to me that if the blogger’s goal is to gain credibility, trust, rapport and, ultimately, authority. . . isn’t the reason that authority is desired is so power and control can be gained?

To me, this reads as a converse relationship between the real world and the blogosphere; in the real world, one gains authority by first having power and control, and in the blogosphere, one gains power and control by first having authority.

Regardless of the circumstances, in either case authority is nothing more than a perception, as it’s been said. It means being perceived as having power and control or, in the case of bloggers, being perceived as credible & trustworthy. But, all in all, if authority is just a perception, and a perception is nothing more than an individual’s interpretation . . . then does actual authority actually exist? More importantly, should we be abiding by, obeying, & living within the dimensions of something that doesn’t exist? Or do we continue to play along, and for whose sake?

Certainly I’m not encouraging anyone to engage in a high-speed car chase when a police officer is attempting to pull you over for a traffic violation–that example was used because it made it easy to illustrate the point. (As a matter of fact, please don’t.)

But what about authority in terms of your own life? Do you live by your own rules, or someone else’s? In other words, do you have power and control over your life, or does someone else?

What if you were to become your own authority on your life? Shouldn’t you be better qualified, given that you actually are an expert on you, versus someone who is just perceived to be?

I’m going to steal a quote from the email signature of a reader who recently wrote me, because I thought it was fantastic:

“They must find it difficult … those who have taken authority as truth rather than truth as authority.” ~ Gerald Massey

And with that, I digress.

What are your thoughts? Is authority real?