We have learned through time and tradition to trust authority. In many cases this can be seen as incorrect, but there are also instances which justify this action. With authority comes the problem of doing without thinking. It leads one to allow their trust to be instilled in something before coming to their own understanding of the idea. This may seem like a dangerous path. Listening to and being aware of authority can also be justified. In this case, we must revisit what we know to be true and come to a realization of the prejudices that allow us to adequately understand the restrictions of authority. We may believe that authority is earned rather than gained. We may have to take steps to get to a place where our education is high enough to have authority over another. These qualifications then open up the question of how to differentiate between the true versus misinformed authority. Here, we have to recognize the way in which authority is presented to us, the history, knowledge, and research behind it. We may need to reflect on the tradition of what we have experienced and continuously believed. We have to allow our opinions to become unbiased, making our opinions not center around ourselves - selfless opinions.
Thus, we will realize here that authority must be earned. Authority that is given by power or is just placed to a certain being is incorrect, which in this case you should not believe in this type of authority. With this being said, we must recognize hierarchy. Hierarchy could be seen as authority that is not earned, but we will realize that it is, in fact, earned through knowledge. The knowledge and experience that one has experienced will be easily able to be passed down to the next king or queen in the previous footsteps. Thus, this type of authority is still earned allowing it to still have truth. Beyond this, we must recognize that authority derived from prejudices that are based in judgments are not valid. We see some counter arguments against this, but will notice that they are not as viable as those against them. Judgments are created through unseen actions. They are made up without thinking intently about a certain subject. In this case, we must choose to not trust authority created through these sorts of prejudices. Although we cannot trust judgment based prejudices, we can trust some prejudices. These prejudices are the ones that are created through knowledge, ones that are made through reason. Reason allows for deliberation and thought, which allow for correct interpretations. We will realize that all of these factors that play into overcoming the misleadings of authority are gained by knowledge and education. Education allows us to gain authority, for we will learn and be able to know more than others. Thus, we gain knowledge. We gain knowledge in order to be able to truly reason, to be able to evaluate, persuade, and overcome. Knowledge will allow us to contribute to both our behavior and the behavior of others. We will then, because of this, have authority. It will be an authority that is true, honest, and just based solely in the established knowledge of beings.
