Olivia’s Top Five ways to question authority

Date: 2011.08.30 | Category: Uncategorized | Tags:

Issa from LoveLiveGrow just had a great post on how to question authority. The answers she gave quite apparently related directly to her life experience, and her views were thoroughly thought-provoking. She called on others to add their own ways to question authority, but since critical thinking is a way of life for me, I thought that was best done here on Write About Birth.

1. Question bureaucracy. Living in a country where the senselessness of government and institutional bureaucracy is beautifully demonstrated, it has become painfully obvious that red tape does nothing but show that citizens must respect authority for the sake of it, and that they must jump through numerous crazy hoops if they want to get anything specific done. How much bureaucracy do you really need in your life? Is it possible to simply opt out?

2. Question hospital births. Since Write About Birth is mainly about, well, birth, I have to mention this. What purpose do procedures in hospitals serve? Is giving birth in a hospital in the best interest of every mother and every baby?

3. Question parenting philosophies. Whatever society we happen to be part of, it certainly has its own set of ingrained parenting philosophies that are rarely questioned. Being aware of them, and questioning whether they serve your family’s purpose, can create a whole different way of parenting. I choose to discard most of the commonly accepted notions about how to parent, and look instead at my children for directions on how to parent.

4. Question the role of women. Again, this relates directly to my living in a deeply patriarchal society. You know what? Women can! Women can do everything that men can, and even more. We can fix stuff in our house, we can carry heavy bags, we can participate in political life, we can participate in wars as soldiers, and we can give birth – even without medical assistance. We are not the weaker sex. We are quite the opposite.

5. Question the need for politeness. Sometimes, we get too caught up in the need to be polite to other people, even when they are total strangers, that we forget about protecting ourselves and our kids. Honoring our intuition and placing the importance of our own safety over the need to be polite is often difficult. It keeps us safe though! I say, get away from situations and people that creep us out, and say no to the “authority of society”, which tells us to be nice to others above all else. This is doubly true for women.