From: open1-AT-execpc.com
Date: Wed, 03 Sep 1997 13:06:52 -0700
Subject: Re: PLC:My last word on Authority -probably


henry sholar wrote:
> 
> these latest tete a tetes avec Mr. Polis have been interesting and
> have evoked for me a return to Elias Canetti's _Crowds and Power_,
> which can be cracked at any page to reveal what a treasure Canetti's
> mind is and what a gift...  par example:
> 
> (pp303-4)  All commands derive from this *flight-command*,
>  as I propose to call it.  In its original form the command is
> something enacted between two animals of different species,
> one of which threatens the other.  The great difference in
> strength between the two, the fact that one of them is habitually
> preyed on by the other, the unalterable nature of the relationship,
> which is felt to have existed for ever- all this makes what happens
>  seem absolute and irrevocable.  Flight is the final and only appeal
> against a death sentence.  For the roar of a lion *is* a death sentence.
>  It is the one sound in its language which all its victims understand;
> this threat may be the only thing they have in common, widely
> different as they otherwise are.  The oldest command- and it is far
> older than man- is a death sentence, and compels the victim to flee.
> We should remember this when we come to discuss human commands.
>  Beneath *all* commands glints the harshness of the death sentence.
> Amongst men they have become so systematized that death is normally
> avoided, but the threat and the fear of it is always contained in them;
> and the coninuedt pronouncement and excution of the real death
> sentence keeps alive the fear of every individual command and of
> commands in general.
> 
> Canetti provides a common ground where we can say that Saicho
> hears the lion's roar
> in most every authoritative command, whereas Dennis has confessed
> to being less
> sensitive to that which lies "beneath" all authority.
> 
> i love the palpable and almost cellular intimacy of Canetti.
> Tho, yes indeed, i weave him in and out of more structured
> thought of Wittgenstein and Heidegger, Canetti's insight,
> like some of Nietzsche's assrues a loosening up of  the
> involuntary metaphysical stance.
> 
> kindest regards,
> hen

While it is interesting and informative to look to the evolutionary roots 
of our behavior, I am not sure that this is a good example of that.  
First, a command is, minimally, an attempt to secure in its recipient 
behavior desired by the commander.  Certainly, predators do not desire 
their prey to flee.

Second, the authority we have been considering is intra-species. 
Intra-specifically, there are territorial cries or calls designed to 
drive interlopers out; however, in animals other than humans, a gesture 
of submission is usually sufficient to placate the winner, and the death 
penalty is not normally in prospect.

So, like the Lockean ideal state of nature, this bit of socio-biology has 
little evidentiary basis.

Dennis Polis