The COWARDICE of thoughtless authoritarian thugs

There have been some disturbing reports about authoritarian figures of late - especially the attempt to rearrest an Indigenous child in Queensland, an event so traumatic it caused the boy to attempt suicide, and was done so clumsily it critically damaged an organisation aiming at preventing crime, but also this, in Ireland, and recent revelations about war crimes by Australian soldiers. 

It is possible (given the comments to me by some former and some at the time serving police, perhaps “likely” is a more appropriate word) the first example above was deliberate (even if “unconsciously” deliberate - unconscious bias is a massive problem, and needs, IMO, to be officially tested for in all applicants for authoritarian roles) and the result of racism, but it is also possible because of another flaw in many of those who choose authoritarian pursuits (police, military, far right parties and extremist groups, etc):

the cowardice of liking being told how to think rather than thinking (or trying to) for oneself 

This shows in: 

• thoughtless obedience to orders (of the type discussed in war crimes trials), 
• the staggering amathia plagued notion of blind loyalty, patriarchy and countless related -isms, 
• attitudes that uniforms are always right/respected or aren’t a source of automatic, justified and immediate fear or that the work of uniformed (or officially approved - see here) persons outweighs all other considerations (including official recommendations for decency - see here, for instance) thus justifying undermining/passive aggression/etc, 
• hazing of new people, and 
• attitudes where undermining attempts at reversing/neutralising/overcoming discrimination/abuse (such as this, this and this) and war crimes/possible war crimes such as this and this are considered acceptable. 

I also include far right extremists in with this lot.

Instead of thoughtlessly outsourcing moral and intellectual responsibility to organisations (such as churches, paramilitary, or extremists), accept some real responsibility and exercise some effort at coming to grips with nuance, counter-arguments, and the concept of human decency. 

It can be done - and has been shown recently by some police (e.g., here) and military (e.g., here), as well as those who leave extremist movements (e.g., here, here, and here). 

PS - for a slightly different take on this, see Police in a Bad Way. But is it Their Fault?, which argues that we expect too much of police

I've touched on this topic, or similar matters, previously. See:

• https://gnwmythrsglossary.blogspot.com/2020/11/know-thyself.html (especially the links);
• https://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2018/09/post-no-1214-courage-in-workplace.html;
• https://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2015/06/post-no-718-intellectual-cowardice-and.html;
• https://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2018/09/post-no-1208-some-thoughts-on-living.html - which covers the topic of "the unexamined life is not worth living" (although I misremembered it as "the life unexamined is a life unlived"); 
• https://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2018/07/post-no-1181-trauma.html; 
• https://gnwmythrsglossary.blogspot.com/2023/03/attraction-to-elitism.html; 
• https://gnwmythrsglossary.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-means-shape-end-ie-end-does-not.html; 
• https://gnwmythrsglossary.blogspot.com/2021/12/lucid-living.html; and 
• https://gnwmythrsglossary.blogspot.com/2021/09/clear-and-present-thinking.html.
  

 

Possible flaws 

Where I can, I will try to highlight possible flaws / issues you should consider:

• there may be flawed logical arguments in the above: to find out more about such flaws and thinking generally, I recommend Brendan  Myers’ free online course “Clear and Present Thinking”; 
  
• I could be wrong - so keep your thinking caps on, and make up your own minds for yourself.
  

 

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