Essay 1 -On Authority and the Relief of Not Deciding
Authority Has Not Disappeared
I’ve always been uneasy around authority.
Not in a dramatic way. No instinct to rebel for its own sake. Just a persistent discomfort when certainty arrives too cleanly, especially when it asks to be accepted rather than examined.
Authority has never really disappeared. It has only changed shape.
For most of human history it sat visibly above us — in gods, kings, institutions, experts. You knew where it was. You could point to it. You could resist it, even if the cost was high.
Today, authority is quieter.
The New Shape of Authority
It now arrives through fluent systems that sound reasonable, balanced, and calm. It does not command. It reassures. And because it does not demand obedience, it becomes harder to notice when judgement quietly moves away from us.
This is not primarily a technological problem.
It is a human one.
When thinking becomes uncomfortable, we look for relief. When responsibility feels heavy, we look for something to lean on. Modern systems offer that relief generously.
They don’t say believe me.
They say this is probably fine.
The Quiet Transfer
The danger is not that these systems are wrong.
It is that they make it easy to stop deciding — and easier still to forget that we have done so.
Authority now transfers without ceremony.
No declaration.
No visible submission.
Judgement moves upward quietly, disguised as convenience.