People rely on their leaders or authorities to make wise decisions and develop law that benefits the community. Authorities form policies and processes that suits communities and help people moving further on way of prosperity. Decisions taken by authorities are derived keeping in mind the greatest good for greatest number of people. It is essential that Authorities should be wise and knowledgeable in order to make wise rules and decisions. This paper discusses how Quote “Authority without wisdom is like a heavy axe without an edge, fitter to bruise than polish” is related with “Revolting against authority”. The paper further analyzes every aspect of Anne’s quote to support this relation.
The Quote “Authority without wisdom is like a heavy axe without an edge, fitter to bruise than polish” is written by Anne Bradstreet. The writer is a Puritan and her quote is influenced by puritan culture and social conditions. This quote clearly depicts how puritan leaders lived and managed their society. Leaders of puritan community were given authority and good power but they did not depict good governance. Anne, through her quote, tries to say that leaders of puritan community had power but no knowledge or very little knowledge which caused poor outcomes for the community (Davis et al.).
This quote could be related to ‘Revolting against authority’ because Anne, in her quote, describes how an authority without wisdom can be harmful for the society. She has shown her disregard and annoyance towards authority through the quote. Decisions taken by authorities with poor wisdom could hurt and damage community in great way. Decision making ability of puritan leaders can be analyzed from the incident of ‘Salem Witch Trials’ in which puritan leaders killed several people especially women just because they were accused of being witches. Such incidents hurt sentiments of the society and create mistrust among people for the authority. Puritan leaders performed functions by adopting difficult processes that could have done through easier ways.
Anne’s quotation depicts true impact of unknowledgeable authority that is ‘fitter to bruise’ on people. Anne very precisely conveyed her revolt against authority to the people through the quote. Puritan people were sensible, and lawful. They respected their authority and obeyed laws. In such case if authority that formed laws is unknowledgeable, how society will go on the path of success. At the time when Anne wrote this quote, the authority was formed by civil magistrate and church ministers were also use to play good role in governing puritan community (Davis et al.). Any community member who broke the law received severe punishment from the authorities. Punishments, that community member used to receive were death, or hole in tongue etc. such cruel punishment even in case of little fault shows the unsympathetic behavior of authorities.
It is general perception of people that authorities are wise enough and laws made by them are in the interest of community and thus, they should be followed. Though such assumptions have been found wrong several times and also affected people adversely. Puritans also made mistakes in judging their policy makers. They relied upon them blindly and were suffered when leaders and policy makers became corrupt or were involved in anti national activities. Damages done by corrupt and unwise authorities to the society are difficult to cure in short time; it took years to heal those damages and take society back to the normal condition. It is essential to revolt against such authorities instead letting them damage the community. As motioned by Plato “Last of all he will be able to see the sun, and not mere reflections of it in water, but he will see it in its own proper place” (Davis et al.).
One example that clearly describes the relation between revolt against authority and Anne’s quote is ‘The Lottery” story. This story inform about one incident when Authorities of the village decided to introduce lottery system in order to identify people to perform bad tasks in the village and one of the person from authorities was became main in-charge to control the lottery system. All governing bodies introduced lottery in the village without considering the negative consequences of it. No authority realized that lottery will be harmful for the villagers as it will take villagers away from their friends and family. If any authority member had been wise, he would have stopped the lottery and also bad tasks such as killing people or punishing them. Villagers should have revolted against such decisions in order to make authorities realize what is wrong and what is right. Revolting against authorities is not easy for people but it should be done. As described by Plato “when he approaches the light his eyes will be dazzled and he will not be able to see anything at all of what now are called realities” (Davis et al.). Anne said that such authorities are harmful hence should be revolted.
After conducting above analysis it can be said that Anne quotation is strongly related with ‘Revolting against authority’. The main job of axe is to polish woods by cutting and making them smoother but if axe do not have sharp edge it will damage the wood. Similarly authorities with no wisdom often take decisions that damage society very deeply and it takes long time to heal those wounds and damages. It is always good to revolt against such authorities instead respecting them, in order to protect people and society from potential damages. People follow their leaders with a belief that they are capable to take wise decisions. People think that decisions taken by leaders are good for people but if leaders do not have capability to take wise decisions they should not be followed and obeyed.
Work Cited
Paul Davis, Gary Harrison, et al. Bedford Anthology of World Literature Volumes 1. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2010. Print.
