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Authority Figures Quotes

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Authority Figures Quotes

“In his important social psychological experiments with students, Asch found out in simple tests that there was a yielding toward an ERRING MAJORITY opinion in more than a third of his test persons, and 75 percent of subjects experimented upon agreed with the majority in varying degrees. In many persons the weight of authority is more important than the quality of the authority.”

MajorityErringGroupthinkAuthority Figures
Book:The Rape of the Mind: The Psychology of Thought Control, Menticide, and Brainwashing
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“Three individuals were involved: the one running the experiment, the subject of the experiment (a volunteer), and a confederate pretending to be a volunteer. These three people fill three distinct roles: the Experimenter (an authoritative role), the Teacher (a role intended to obey the orders of the Experimenter), and the Learner (the recipient of stimulus from the Teacher). The subject and the actor both drew slips of paper to determine their roles, but unknown to the subject, both slips said "teacher". The actor would always claim to have drawn the slip that read "learner", thus guaranteeing that the subject would always be the "teacher". Next, the "teacher" and "learner" were taken into an adjacent room where the "learner" was strapped into what appeared to be an electric chair. The experimenter told the participants this was to ensure that the "learner" would not escape.[1] The "teacher" and "learner" were then separated into different rooms where they could communicate but not see each other. In one version of the experiment, the confederate was sure to mention to the participant that he had a heart condition.[1] At some point prior to the actual test, the "teacher" was given a sample electric shock from the electroshock generator in order to experience firsthand what the shock that the "learner" would supposedly receive during the experiment would feel like. The "teacher" was then given a list of word pairs that he was to teach the learner. The teacher began by reading the list of word pairs to the learner. The teacher would then read the first word of each pair and read four possible answers. The learner would press a button to indicate his response. If the answer was incorrect, the teacher would administer a shock to the learner, with the voltage increasing in 15-volt increments for each wrong answer. If correct, the teacher would read the next word pair.[1] The subjects believed that for each wrong answer, the learner was receiving actual shocks. In reality, there were no shocks. After the confederate was separated from the subject, the confederate set up a tape recorder integrated with the electroshock generator, which played prerecorded sounds for each shock level. After a number of voltage-level increases, the actor started to bang on the wall that separated him from the subject. After several times banging on the wall and complaining about his heart condition, all responses by the learner would cease.[1] At this point, many people indicated their desire to stop the experiment and check on the learner. Some test subjects paused at 135 volts and began to question the purpose of the experiment. Most continued after being assured that they would not be held responsible. A few subjects began to laugh nervously or exhibit other signs of extreme stress once they heard the screams of pain coming from the learner.[1] If at any time the subject indicated his desire to halt the experiment, he was given a succession of verbal prods by the experimenter, in this order:[1] Please continue. The experiment requires that you continue. It is absolutely essential that you continue. You have no other choice, you must go on.”

Authority Figures
Author:Wikipedia :-)
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“...There are also those who inadvertently grant power to another man's words by continuously trying to spite him. If a man gets to the point where he can simply say, 'The sky is blue,' and people indignantly rush up trying to refute him saying, 'No, the sky is light blue,' then, whether they realize it or not, he has become an authority figure even to such adversaries.”

PeopleIfsMenTryingLightRealizingLeadershipSkyFiguresAuthorityBlueSpiteGrantsAdversariesAnother ManSaying NoAuthority FiguresLight Blue
Author:Criss Jami
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“Our parents, our tribesman, our authority figures, clearly expect us to be bad or anti-social or greedy or selfish or dirty or destructive or self-destructive. Our social nature is such that we tend to meet the expectations of our elders. Whenever this reversal took place and our elders stopped expecting us to be social and expected us to be anti-social, just to put it in gross terms, that's when the real fall took place. And we're paying for it dearly.”

RealSelfFallSocialParentTermFiguresAuthorityExpectationsExpectedSelfishDirtyDestructiveExpectingGreedyGrossEldersSelf DestructiveReversalAnti SocialAuthority Figures
Author:Jean Liedloff
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“A lot of authority figures want to be good. I sense that, and yet at the same time I sense that authority, after a while, always leads to some kind of oppression. When the minority report comes in, what you do is run the minority out of town with a flaming cross. It's just the way things are.”

WayWantKindRunningFiguresAuthorityCrossesTownsBe GoodOppressionReportsMinoritiesAuthority FiguresMinority Report
Book:Bare bones: conversations on terror with Stephen King
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“When we were on acid, we would go into the woods, because there was less chance that you would run into an authority figure. But we ran into a bear. My friend Duane was there, raising his right hand, swearing to help prevent forest fires. He told me, "Mitchell, Smokey is way more intense in person!"”

WayPersonsHelpingHumorHandsRunningFunnyChanceFireFiguresBearsAuthorityMy FriendsWoodsIntenseForestsRanAcidSwearingForest FiresAuthority Figures
Author:Mitch Hedberg
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“I was petrified because all my friends would be going to Washington, DC, to protest. I was sixteen, and I was like, "I don't think I'll be going with you guys," just because I was scared. Then you saw the news, and cops - not students in schools with guns - cops are killing sixteen year old protesters on the news. To me that was more horrifying, to have the authority figures actually killing people on the evening news, than to have another student firing a gun.”

PeopleThinkingYearsWould BeSchoolGuySawsFiguresStudentsAuthorityNewsGunMy FriendsKillingScaredEveningProtestCopSixteenFiringWashington DcAuthority FiguresSixteen Year Olds
Author:Gus Van Sant
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“When you have an authority figure tell you something that distinguishes you, there's a little bit of a badge of courage or pride point that comes with it, and also some relief that the grownups actually have an answer for the problem. But, at the same time, there's suspicion and defensiveness, like, Why is the way I do things a problem? Maybe the way you do things is the problem. All of these things come with the very notion that you've been described.”

WayLittlesProblemBitsAnswersFiguresPrideAuthorityLittle BitNotionReliefSuspicionBadgesGrownupsDefensivenessAuthority Figures
Author:Lucy Corin
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“There have, for years, been comparative studies of religious fanaticism and factors that correlate with it. By and large, it tends to decline with increasing industrialization and education. The US, however, is off the chart, ranking near devastated peasant societies. About 1/2 the population believe the world was created a few thousand years ago: the justification for the belief is that that is what they were ordered to believe by authority figures to whom they were taught one must subordinate oneself. And on, and on.”

WorldYearsBelieveBeliefReligiousStudyFiguresTaughtThousandAuthorityYears AgoOneselfPopulationFactorsDeclineJustificationThousand YearsPeasantsFanaticismSubordinatesDevastatedRankingIndustrializationAuthority Figures
Author:Noam Chomsky
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“You do not know me, but I am a juvenile delinquent. I do not trust authority figures, I probably will not graduate from high school, and statistics say my present rowdiness and vandalism will likely lead to more serious crimes. I am a dangerous fellow, and I am causing mayhem in this store. [...] There. I have now shamelessly destroyed the symmetry of this shelf, undoing hours of labor by underpaid store employees. If you could see me, you would be frightened.”

IfsKnowsWould BeSchoolHoursDangerousCrimeFiguresSeriousAuthorityHigh SchoolLaborFellowsStoresDestroyedEmployeeStatisticsFrightenedGraduatesKnow MeShelvesSymmetryJuvenileUndoingMayhemDelinquentsGraduating High SchoolVandalismUnderpaidAuthority Figures
Author:Katherine Applegate
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“When I was a kid, my parents smartly raised us to keep quiet, be respectful to older people, and generally not question adults all that much. I think that's because they were assuming that 99 percent of the time, we'd be interacting with worthy, smart adults... They didn't ever tell me 'Sometimes you will meet idiots who are technically adults and authority figures. You don't have to do what they say.”

PeopleThinkingSometimesKidsParentFiguresQuietAuthoritySmartPercentAdultsAssumingRaisedWorthyIdiotRespectfulInteractingOlder PeopleBe RespectfulAuthority Figures
Author:Mindy Kaling
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“Find your true path. It’s so easy to become someone we don’t want to be, without even realizing it’s happening. We are created by the choices we make every day. And if we take action in order to please some authority figure, we’ll suddenly wake up down the road and say, “This isn’t me. I never wanted to be this person.”

IfsWantPersonsActionWantedOrderChoicesEasyRealizingPathFiguresPleaseAuthorityHappeningsWake UpDown The RoadAuthority Figures
Author:Richard Carlson
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“It can be tempting to blame others for our loss of direction. We get lots of information about life but little education in life from parents, teachers, and other authority figures who should know better from their experience. Information is about facts. Education is about wisdom and the knowledge of how to love and survive.”

KnowsShouldLittlesFactsParentLossEducationTeacherFiguresInformationAuthorityBlameTemptingHow To LoveAuthority Figures
Author:Bernie Siegel
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“Despite their tremendous talent, (NBA players) are still, by and large, young adults, seeking validation from an authority figure, and there is no greater authority figure on a team than the coach. Needless to say, in today's warped, self-indulgent climate, too many players couldn't care less about appeasing the coach.”

StillsSelfCareTodayYoungGreaterPlayerTeamTalentFiguresAuthorityAdultsClimateYoung AdultSeekingCoachesDespiteNbaValidationNba PlayerSelf IndulgentAuthority Figures
Author:Phil Jackson
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“Children have a remarkable talent for not taking the adult world with the kind of respect we are so confident it ought to be given. To the irritation of authority figures of all sorts, children expend considerable energy in "clowning around." They refuse to appreciate the gravity of our monumental concerns, while we forget that if we were to become more like children our concerns might not be so monumental.”

IfsWorldKindChildrenMightEnergyGivenForgetFamilyTalentFiguresOughtAuthorityAdultsConcernAppreciateRefuseRemarkableGravityIrritationAuthority FiguresClowning
Book:The Comic Vision and the Christian Faith: A Celebration of Life and Laughter
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