Authority Essay

When you learnt Adolf Hitler genocided the Jewish people, when you heard North Korean government monitors all the foreigners in the country, and when you get annoyed when your parents forbid you to go out on school nights, have you ever considered the power and control of authority around you? Thinking about your parents, elder siblings, teachers, the city mayor and even the president, all of those are the authority figures around you in the daily life. Because authority is not always correct and can be easily abused, people need to have their own judgment and combat the injustice when it happens.

Authority is the person with higher ability. Thus, he/she has the power and responsibility to enforce laws, exact obedience and lead the path of building a harmonious society. People expect authority figures to always stand on the side of justice and use positive and beneficial means to lead the people and the society forward. No matter what happened, authority should never use the power and trust that people give him to do something immoral or lead a negative and harmful trend in society.

However, authority can be easily abused. Kim Jong Il, the chairman of the People’s Democratic Republic of North Korea, abuses his authority. There are a lot of reports of torture, public executions, slave labor, and forced abortions and infanticides in prison camps published by the human rights investigation group of the United Nations. Besides, the North Korean government makes it very difficult for foreigners to enter the country and strictly monitors their activities. In addition, North Korea citizens can not leave the country easily. What’s more, aid workers have to undergo considerable scrutiny and are excluded from places and regions the government does not want them to enter. The North Korea government is like the Big Brother in the book “1984”, monitoring all the aspects of life and abusing the power of authority to make his people’s life a great misery. Like the society