Sunday, February 17, 2019

Hierarchy



Hierarchy is one of those concepts I see underinformed people bash pretty often.

A politicized hierarchy is bad, not because of the hierarchy, but because of the politics.

Hierarchy is the recognition that some people are better at some things than I am. I learned to make fire with the bow drill from Burnt Spoon because he knew more and had more experience than I did. Larken Rose is better at explaining liberty than I am. To deny those facts, just because I don't want anyone in the hierarchy "above" me, would be insane and unhelpful.

If an employee doesn't listen to a supervisor just because he doesn't want to be "lower" on the hierarchy than the boss, he may mess up. The employee may lose his job. Yes, he might be right, and it might be worth it to defy the boss, but it's not automatically oppression to defer to someone else who knows more about something than you do. Any legitimate hierarchy is a hierarchy of competence.

But, as with anything else, once you add politics to the mix your hierarchy is probably no longer based on competence, but on power and imaginary "authority". This kind of hierarchy is illegitimate and you have no obligation to submit to it.

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