OddThinking

I recently heard a radio interview with the King of Motown, Smokey Robinson. The interview was recorded last year when he was in Australia.

He made a throw-away comment that has been bugging me ever since – to a degree that is surprisingly to me.

I don’t remember the exact context – I think it was about lessons from Woodstock, but he explained that we should all “question authority that isn’t enlightened by God.”

I understand the suggestion (recommendation? duty?) to question authority. It is the implication of the qualifier that staggered me.

Why did this expression catch my attention? Is it merely that I disagree with it? No. That’s not it.

Oh, to be clear, I certainly think you should especially question authorities that claim to have God’s backing; no matter what your faith (or lack of it), it is clear that many unhappy events have been caused by people being misled by such claims.

However, I don’t think that is what is bugging me.

What I kept thinking about was how much artful thinking and rationalisation it took to get to the point that he could automatically rattle off this qualifier until it sounded natural. Taking a cliche like “Question authority” and carefully modifying it to protect a subset of authorities from its glare takes deliberation (whether from Smokey Robinson, or someone he was parroting).

I finally realised what was really niggling me. It was Animal Farm all over again.

Question authority, but some authorities are more equal than others.