Healthy authority is the foundation of a free society. An individual or a society needs to have healthy, positive authority in order to thrive, to make decisions, to make judgements, to inspire others, to be courageous and resilient, to inspire trust, to set boundaries and to provide security. Our power and authority arises from the life force intrinsic in human beings and, if you are religious, from God. It is the force that grows an acorn into an oak tree. We know what is right from the combined wisdom of our gut, heart, spirit, experience and mind. An individual’s power arises from their personal power, ability to fight, status, position, knowledge, righteousness, track record, skills, control of resources, relationship networks, reputation, spiritual power, trustworthiness, self-confidence, fitness, awareness, experience, profession, the law, ability to tell stories, sense of humour, attractiveness sexiness and presence.

One of the core strengths of Western Civilization is the continuous challenge to power and authority of which the original Magna Carta was an example. Power and authority can be abused. The strong have abused the weak. The rich have exploited the poor. The intelligent have tricked the less intelligent. The attractive have an unfair advantage over the unattractive. Dominant tribes have attacked, dominated and exploited weaker tribes. There are many forms of abuse including corruption, crime, exploitation, bullying, anti-social behaviour and domestic violence. The abuse of power can be found at every level of society from the school playground to the cabals and rigged markets of the financial world. Socialist bureaucracies, academic departments and charities are riddled with abuses of power, status and unaccountable officials.

Since the horrors of the Second World War, we have actively challenged and deconstructed the forms of traditional power including Church, money, patriarchy, racial superiority, family, aristocracy and empire. That has been a necessary and desirable process in our cultural evolution. However, a false belief has gained currency. We have come to accept a new truism: that power always corrupts and authority is always bad. That is deeply destructive, corrosive and cynical. However imperfect human beings are, you can never effectively replace a wise, compassionate and fair human being, asserting their natural power and authority, with state control or pseudoscientific bureaucratic processes. To assert that all power is bad and all authority is corrupt, is like cutting the roots of a tree, killing the foundation of our civilization. Nature abhors a vacuum. Where there is inadequate healthy authority, unhealthy forms of power and authority assert themselves. Where there is a lack of healthy adult authority in the community, we see a lack of boundaries, discipline and security which create the perfect conditions for a new form of authority to arise: gangs, bullies and criminals. Where countries lack healthy authority, mafias, warlords and terrorists take charge. It is ordinary people, especially the weak and powerless, who lose out to bullies, criminals and thugs when there is inadequate positive authority.

Every parent needs to love and nurture their children, but they also need to inspire respect and assert healthy boundaries. Every teacher needs to inspire their pupils as well as maintaining order and discipline. Every member of a healthy society needs to be able to assert healthy authority as well as challenging authority and holding it to account. Therefore, we must nurture and empower healthy, positive authority in every person, leader and institution. We must heal the wounds of the past where authority was abused. We need to continuously renew our integrity, righteousness and morality as individuals. The powerful must be held to account including parents, teachers, doctors, policemen, the law, media, politicians, financial power, educational power, corporate power and bureaucracy. We need to ensure that power is always accountable through transparency, scrutiny, democracy, law and the right of appeal. This applies to all equally, including the weakest in society.