Authority Without Questions

The most powerful way to protect an idea is to make questioning it a sin.

Every system of control eventually faces the same problem: people start asking "why?" The elegant solution is to redefine the question itself as the problem. In religion, it's called heresy or lack of faith. In politics, it's disloyalty or being unpatriotic. In certain scientific circles, it's being a "denier." The label changes. The function is identical — shut down inquiry before it reaches the foundation.

This is not about whether the authority is right or wrong. Sometimes it is right. The issue is the mechanism. When questioning becomes transgression, you are no longer being asked to agree. You are being asked to obey. And there is a vast difference between someone who believes because they have examined and someone who believes because they were told that examining is forbidden.

You can spot this pattern anywhere power concentrates. Watch for the moment when a reasonable question gets met not with an answer but with a accusation about your character. "How dare you ask" is never a response that comes from confidence. It comes from a position that cannot survive scrutiny and knows it.

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References

• Karen Armstrong — A History of God (1993)
• Chris Hedges — American Fascists (2007)