The Death of Authority: Part II

Another important thing to remember, I think, when considering the loss of social cohesion and legitimate authority is this: rarely in history has it led to a society composed of enlightened individuals, free of fetters. Generally the break-down of legitimate authority and faith in it has led to waves of anarchy. The result of that has been the masquerading of naked power as legitimate authority.

In that sense, I have to be troubled by the national Republican Party (under the political direction of Karl Rove) and its swing toward authoritarianism on issues relating to executive power.

But to provide an adequate counter-balance, the Democratic Party would have to reject much of the anti-authority rhetoric currently fashionable among their partisans. It seems to me that Livy was right:

Then as the standard of morality gradually lowers, let him follow the decay of the national character, observing how at first it slowly sinks, then slips downward more and more rapidly, and finally begins to plunge into headlong ruin, until he reaches these days, in which we can bear neither our diseases nor their remedies.