Authoritarianism and Authority
“Authoritarianism and authority are related as sickness is to health. Authoritarianism is a pathological caricature of authority. Authoritarianism is sick compensation for weakness; authority is a healthy expression of strength. Authoritarian people stifle freedom; authority requires freedom to make it work. Authoritarianism works only when people surrender their own wills; authority works only when people give free and critical consent.
“Fear of authority is, in our time, actually a fear of authoritarianism, a confusion that cries for cure.”
Source: Lewis B. Smedes, Mere Morality: What God Expects from Ordinary People (Eedrmans, 1985), 75.
