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society is made up of individual people, no two of whom
are exactly alike. Some are smarter, some have more money,
and some are docile and blindly follow leaders while others
are more vocal in addressing the topic of authority. In
most cases, it is better when many of a society’s people
are questioning authority. Generally, the more the people
that are questioning authority, the more the society’s people
care about what that authority is doing. Centuries ago,
there were many reasons why a society should not question
the controlling authority. Even today there may be some
cases where fewer questions are better, but for the majority
of the world’s people, it is true that a society is made
better by asking questions of the authorities that control
them.
In the past, emperors,
kings and queens controlled much of the world with an authority
that could not be questioned. In some cases, the leaders
were deemed to be heavenly deities that could do no wrong,
therefore purely blind allegiance was both expected and
demanded. In some cases, the entire existence of a society
would depend on the unquestioning loyalty of the leader’s
subjects. Hundreds of years ago this type of leadership
made sense as people were generally poorly educated and
would have been much worse off without such a strong leader.
Uneducated peasants were mainly farmers and could hardly
be expected to know how to keep a society together. Their
leaders were expected to protect and defend the society
from roving gangs and armies from other countries. The sustained
success of the Roman Empire, the Ottoman Empire and centuries
of rulers in China and Japan show the necessity of having
authority that was beyond question.
As
time passed and people became better educated, the reasons
for having such leaders became fewer and fewer. Along with
the Industrial Revolution came the need for more and more
people to have a voice in their own governments and chosen
leaders. No longer bound to one particular piece of ground
by the earth that they farmed, people could move about and
learn more about what was happening both in their own societies
and those nearby. Feudal kingdoms began dying out. People
began to realize that their leaders were not “heavenly
chosen” but merely fallible human beings just like themselves.
With the growing realization that these leaders were not
perfect came the idea that questioning authority might not
be such a bad thing after all.
Certainly
in the past one hundred years there have been continuing
dictatorships that have suppressed millions by wielding
absolute authority. In some cases, people were executed
for daring to question authority. Even recently, the Taliban
in Afghanistan ran an oppressive form of government that
was beyond question to its society. If no one ever dared
to question the authority, people would have less reason
to believe that anything was wrong with their government.
But every time one person would speak out, another person
or two was probably inspired to do the same. One voice could
inspire many other voices. Man’s right to self-determination
should be an inalienable right, but remaining silent is
not the way to assert that right. One voice or a few voices
may be silenced, but eventually the authority being questioned
will be forced to answer.
In general, the
more people that question authority, the more likely the
society is to get real answers. Questioning authority is
the best way to keep a government honest and accountable.
No government official should be afraid to answer the question
“Why?” If a society has people that are willing and able
to question authority, they are much more likely to determine
the course of that society. People in a self-determining
society have the best opportunity for life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness.
(653 words) |
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社会是由个人组成的，他们中绝无二人是截然相同的。有些较为聪明，有些较为富有，有些较为驯顺，会盲目追随领袖人物，而有些则在对待政府当局这一论题上显得更能言善辩。普遍而言，对政府当局质疑的人越多，这表明社会民众就越关注政府当局在做些什么。数个世纪以前，存在着许多的理由，致使一个社会无法对控制着政权的政府进行质疑。即使在今天，可能在某些情形中，人们提出的质疑越少越好。但对于世界大多数的民众而言，有一点似乎是确凿无疑的，即整个社会通过对控制着他们的政府当局提出诸多质询，这个社会就会变得更好
昔日，皇帝、国王、王后们控制着整个世界的大部分，其权威不容置疑。在有些情形中，这些领袖人物被视若上界的神灵，绝不可能铸成任何错误。这样一来，臣民们不仅仅被期望，而且亦被要求去对领袖们绝对盲目地效忠。在某些情形中，社会的全部存在完全有赖于领袖人物的臣民们不加质疑的绝对忠诚。数百年之前，当民众普遍没有接受过良好的教育时，这样一种类型的执政风格尚有其合理之处。设若没有这样一个强有力的领袖人物的话，整个社会的状况可能会糟糕得多。我们不可能期望那些没有受过教育的农民去懂得如何来统辖整个社会。这样，这些农民的领袖们则被期望去保护和防卫这个社会，使其免受匪邦或敌国军队的侵扰。罗马帝国、奥托曼帝国以及中国和日本数个世纪的统治者们持久的成功表明了拥有一个不容置疑的政府当局的必要性。
随着时间的推移以及人们日趋受到良好的教育，拥有昔日那种领袖人物的理由也变得越来越少。伴随着工业革命，对越来越多的人来说，有必要在其自己的政府中和他们所选择的领袖们身上体现出自己的呼声。由于不再为他们所耕种的大地羁绊于任何一片特定的土地，人们可以自由流动，并更多地了解到有关他们自己社会中以及邻近社会中所在发生的一切。封建王国开始分崩离析。人们开始意识到他们的领袖并非是“神授”的，而只是一些也有可能失误的凡夫俗子，与他们自己毫无二致。随着人们渐趋意识到这些领袖人物们并非完美无缺，一种新的理念便告诞生，即对政府当局进行质疑或许并非是一件十分糟糕的事情。
毫无疑问，在过去的一百年中，出现过持续不断的专制政体，通过行使绝对权力而压迫天下百姓。在某些情形中，人们若敢质疑政府当局，便会遭到处决。即使在不久之前，阿富汗塔利班实行一种镇压民众的统治形式，不容社会有所质疑。如果没人敢质疑政府当局，人们就越是没有理由去相信其政府运转正常。但每当一个人敢于直抒己见时，另外一二个人或许会受到感染而同样行事。一个人的声音会唤起无数其他人的声音。人类自决的权力应成为一种不容剥夺的权力，而保持沉默永远也无法行使这一权力。一个人的声音或少数几个人的声音可以被扼制，但最终，遭到质疑的政府当局将被迫作出回答。
普遍而言，人们越是质疑政府当局，一个社会就越有可能获得真正的答案。对政府当局质疑是使一个政府诚实和负责的最佳途径。所有政府官员都不应惧怕去回答“为什么？”这一问题。如果一个社会拥有愿意且能够质疑政府当局的民众，他们就更有可能确定该社会的发展方向。生活在一个自治社会中的人们享有最好的机会去追求生活，追求自由，追求幸福。
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