Defer to Authority

When power over you is exercised with the same trappings for a long time, you start to fear and obey the trappings, wherever they appear.

If I put on a police uniform and start bossing you around, you’ll instinctively obey, even though I’m not a police officer. Statistically, it’ll be way more likely that I can get you to do all sorts of stuff you don’t want to do in that uniform. But I don’t even have to go that far – if I just dress and look like an off-duty cop, speak in an authoritative tone, that will work, too.

If someone’s job title is higher than yours, you’ll defer to them even if you don’t work for the same company. Even to your own detriment.

This behavior is natural. It’s understandable. We live in social hierarchies and we learn to size them up, and then we defer to them. It’s natural that you should be more instinctively deferential to someone who reminds you of your strict teacher, your strict parents, your strict boss.

It’s natural, and you must fight it.

Like many instincts, the purpose of this one is to keep you safe. But your instincts know that the safest route is the most cowardly, the most supplicant. The safest way to live is in deference to authority. So many of your instincts are tuned to that because a huge portion of your brain is just dedicated to pushing you in the direction of staying alive until tomorrow.

Staying alive is no way to live.

Fight the instincts that keep you safe.