Authority figures should seek learning or turn into Historical figures
Since antiquity, we’ve learned to relinquish our knowledge and freedom to authorities. This authoritative compliance is deeply ingrained into every aspect of society:
Nowadays, we still outsource a lot of our thinking to authority figures but we have to be careful to keep a balance. Because outsourcing zero thoughts would be exhausting and outright impossible. But, outsourcing all thoughts doesn’t work either, as Benjamin Franklin explains:
“If everybody is thinking alike, then no one is thinking.”
The key is finding credible and trustworthy authority figures to outsource our thinking. To be a credible and trustworthy authority figure, you have to be learning every single day and for the rest of your entire life. You cannot receive a certificate, a degree, or an award and call it quits.
Therefore, Doctors shouldn’t be going to school for 9 years, they should be going for life.
The conservative numbers say it takes 4 years before the average primary practice physician is able to begin applying new knowledge and research in their practice. But, this assumes they have a system for seeking it out and applying it.
To use one example of new research yet to be applied is the destructive nature of antibiotics to our biology but we incessantly use them for almost every ailment that a patient has (270 million prescriptions in 2015).
Another example is in nutrition and biochemistry. As a society, we have very depleted levels of key nutrients like Vitamin D (75% of Americans) and high rates of chronic disease (60% of Americans). Therefore, patients are prescribed high doses of synthetic Vitamin D or told to do “healthy things” like drink orange juice.
But, our complex biology doesn’t work that way. To properly metabolize and absorb nutrients our body needs the synergistic effects of other nutrients and enzymes like fiber from an orange or Vitamin A and Vitamin K2.
Therefore, we have to find thought leaders at the forefront of knowledge. Those who are constantly learning and updating their brain database.
We don’t want a boss or leader who’s in a position of authority to lead by an old school directive leadership style. We instead desire an empowering leadership style.
We don’t want our veterinarians to give nutrition advice for our pets if they spent less than 20% of their education on it and have stopped updating their nutrition knowledge base. It’s worth asking why Vet’s are still recommending those giant bags of nutrient-depleted processed foods.
So, don’t put your complete trust in the hands of authorities or organizations. Find someone you can trust is credible and is constantly learning and embedding new info into their world model.
Also, be okay with them willing to theorize and be wrong here and there.
Even in monarchies, an authoritative figure’s rule over the world was masqueraded by internal struggles. If they would have continued learning, maybe they would have achieved self-mastery along with human mastery.
Therefore, don’t stop learning or risk turning from an authority figure into a historical figure.
You can’t argue on the basis of authority. You can’t cite your credentials as a reason that you should be taken seriously. Either your argument or your data survives scrutiny or it doesn’t.
-Sam Harris
