# Attempted Authority By:: [[Ross Jackson]] 2024-12-22 All authority is at first attempted authority. An attempt necessitates that a person in question acts intentionally and deliberately. A person committing attempted authority willfully acts to subordinate others. Often, attempted authority is committed by those in power. It is the response of the other that is essential. Many people simply act by recognizing attempted authority as an authority and making authority manifest. Recognized authority is authorized realized. This may be why so many people with power are narcists. Authority is all about recognition. To be in power is to have authority, which is to have recognition. There is no authority without recognition. There can be power, force, and coercion without recognition. People can be made to do anything one with power wants. But those in power do not want to have to go to the trouble of exercising force. This is tedious, time-consuming, and exhausting. Plus, it becomes a spectacle and limits one’s ability to scale. Two things happen if one in power must take an inordinate amount of time to force a given individual to comply. First, others are likely observing the spectacle and starting to realize the real limit of power. Second, one focuses too much on a given individual rather than having the system operate efficiently. Having to exercise force is a failure of authority, not an adjunct to it. A person in a position of power without authority is like a child playing dress up or like a clown. One sees the individual but is unimpressed. Authority requires recognition to function properly. Individuals can withhold recognition. The weakest person among us all the strength one needs to withhold from the most powerful individual the things most desired: respect and recognition. The way to sabotage authoritarianism is through mockery. It is the quickest way to show that those in power have no authority and that there is nothing more pathetic than attempted authority by those who are jokes and frauds. #### Related Items [[Authority]] [[Power]] [[Focus]] [[Respect]] [[Individuals]]