Unquestioned authority makes a stand

In an age of self advocacy individual groups put forward their agenda for recognition and progress.

This has meant that virtually everyone thinks this has "gone too far" because there is always some group that each and every one of us thinks is undeserving or who's demands for freedom either impinges too much on the freedoms of society in general.

Another way of looking at that is that we don't like them, or what we feel they stand for, so we don't want them to be equal, we want them to know their place. Because of this we feel the need to invest in unquestioned authority, purely as a means of keeping those we don't like and to spare us all from anarchy.

We don't wish to have to rely on confronting our chosen "undesirables" as marshaling counter arguments can be hard work and confrontation often upsets us, especially if we feel we are being reasonable.

A lot of this frustration has been diverted into the obesity crisis, telling fat people what to do has become the favourite role play of control, made into an on going theatrical event, to bring excitement and relieve the tedium of existence. A bit like those role play computer games, where good takes on evil, except with added spice of the involvement of real people.

It's funny, we claim to believe in the triumph of rationality, but express this through irrationality.

The problem with picking on fat people it's a big flunk out, we actually serve as a cautionary example of where belief in authority, regardless of merit, can leave you.

We show exactly why the advocacy of self has become a necessary requirement of any sane plan for self defense; don't do it and you give others the scent of blood, rather than show willing as you imagine. We show why-yet again- authority has become so mistrusted.

All of that would be tolerable if the path was not sullied by the fact that we are expected to make real that which is unreal, that which is wrong because the status quo insists it's right.

Even though we've done virtually everything we've been told, we have been erased and written in by those who wish us to serve as an example of how society brings wrong 'uns to heel. Making the world safe for the good folk.

We have shown that we are not rebellious, when it's come to the matter of weight, yet we are labelled "non-complaint" because we cannot make true something that is false.

The truth of this is given away by people saying they worry when we veer off the obesity script to discuss our experiences-in our own voices- that will lead us to self destruct. Clearly, the weight loss surgery, dieting with reckless self disregard and occasional pill popping-sometimes ending in serious damage has been noted.

Yes, if you're unnerved by the the thought of how easily led a group is, that is the opposite profile of non-compliant. The fear tells us we do as we are told, by whomever we are told, regardless of the effects on us.

If people are independent and never do as they're told, that we will not listen would be the fear.

I get a strong sense that the results of all this could have a profound effect on how we see authority in our modern societies. As rank has so often been the defining word in keeping us in our place, getting past that changes our investment in authority, even if the shake down isn't fully revealed.