fights

Muhammad Ali just had a seventieth birthday celebration. He earned his fame by being a fighter not just in a boxing ring but in real life. In his real life fights it wasn't one on one in a ring, it was masses against one lone man. He fought racial discrimination, religious intolerance, commercial greed and ultimately the government in the country that was his by birth but not by custom or conscience.



I've had these kind of fights too, not as glorious or wide reaching but nonetheless tough ones. I've had the more mundane fights as well, for independence, social justice, better gender roles, bad days and against incompetence.

My parents and teachers told me often "don't fight". I'm still not sure what they had in mind. Were they counseling passive submission to all that life brings to me? Was it really "don't fight authority"?

Why fight?

At the primal level we all have a fight or flight response that kicks in when something threatening happens. We're wired to either run away or beat on the threat. Not very common occurrence for most of us. Our civilized lives keep the wild animals and wild people away most of the time. Not a whole lot of fighting required. Funny thing is we still have the reflex, even though we rarely use it as intended and don't expect to use it often. In the fight against natural threats, we've kind of won.

Fighting makes you feel bad

Nobody likes the huge adrenaline hit, racing heart, twitchy muscles, and fast breathing that comes with a fight. You don't feel too good afterward: sleepy, achy and kind of weak. Everybody knows this. So don't fight?



Reasons to fight

No, we still have to fight, maybe with less physical intensity than our ancestors but there are still things that require at least a threat of a fight. So what reasons are sufficient?


Wild animal attack
        Not a frequent event for most of us.
Marauding savages
        Time to move and get some new friends.

Aliens!
        OK, folks the only alien you're going to see is the one working on the rich guy's lawn. Don't fight him, he's just hungry. Better to fight the rich guy until he shows some kindness to the poor.

Injustice
         When someone takes what is not his, even if he rigged the laws to make it appear to be his, that's not right. We should fight to make it right.

Manipulation

  Most of all, the assumption of authority by those that don't use it for good. When the guys you are hanging with hurt people and make them less, time to leave, they're not your friends.

Jesus didn't tell the poor it was their fault and that they needed to fix their own problems, he told the rich, the powerful and the self-righteous to do that.

authority

au·thor·i·ty

1. The power or right to give orders, make decisions, and enforce obedience

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re·spon·si·bil·i·ty

1. The state or fact of having a duty to deal with something.

2. The state or fact of being accountable or to blame for something.
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ac·count·abil·i·ty

: the quality or state of being accountable; especially : an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one's actions accountability

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Authority is one of a kind of power, it devolves from one of greater power, a sort of feudal hierarchy of might. It is done by commandment

Responsibility is a kind of accountability, it devolves from a delegation of accountability, usually because the delegator doesn't wish to be held accountable.

Both accountability and power are assumed, usually willingly and often voluntarily. They are democratic virtues. Sometimes, they are a burden to be carried for a time and then happily surrendered, as Cincinnatus. The tenure of responsibility and authority is left to the discretion of the overlord and are authoritarian values.

it is not meet that I should command in all things; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward.  ...  men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness;  For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. -- Doctrine and Covenants 58

ye are free; ye are permitted to act for yourselves; for behold, God hath given unto you a knowledge and he hath made you free. He hath given unto you that ye might know good from evil, and he hath given unto you that ye might choose life or death; and ye can do good and be restored unto that which is good, or have that which is good restored unto you; or ye can do evil, and have that which is evil restored unto you. -- Helaman 14

 Man was also in the beginning with God. Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be.  All truth is independent in that sphere in which God has placed it, to act for itself, as all intelligence also; otherwise there is no existence.  Behold, here is the agency of man, and here is the condemnation of man; because that which was from the beginning is plainly manifest unto them, and they receive not the light. And every man whose spirit receiveth not the light is under condemnation. Doctrine and Covenants 93

Do we have authority or priesthood power? Are we responsible or accountable? The power of agency is neither created nor made. Our accountability is in our wise use of agency. Neither is by delegation or commandment. At the existential level, we are plainly not responsible or authorized, we are accountable and powerful. However, we are not powerful merely to gratify our greed, our prejudices or whims: our power must be used for good (D&C 121:41) or it ceases to be. We are accountable before God for doing good.

Notions such as responsibility, authority and obedience have crept into our wisdom and speech from feudal sources in which a despot holding worldly power replaced a perfected being who was accountable, powerful and wise because he was good. These feudal concepts still cloud our vision of our purpose and divert us from holiness to submission to authority, or from accountability to responsibility and from agency to mimicry. It is time to put aside the lesser values and take up the greater values, eternity accepts nothing less. We don't train for 4-foot hurdles by practicing on 2-foot hurdles.