Rampant in "chain of command" situations --- especially the military and "mega-biz" establishments --- whereby everybody wants to push underlings around but then hastily "passes the buck" and claims ignorance/innocence when things go sour. Refers to the deplorable practice of an arrogant/dictatorial/irresponsible/ignorant a**h**e with way too much power ("authority") giving unwise/ineffective/counter-productive orders to one or more hapless underlings, brusquely refusing to listen to their urgently-beseeching appeals about the fallacy/unfairness/danger of proceeding as he told them, but then suddenly shedding all knowledge/responsibility (i.e., not admitting that he was indeed the "author" of those crazy stipulations) regarding said preposterous directives whenever s**t hits the fan afterwards as a result of his subordinates' having reluctantly-but-obediently carried out his unwisely-mandated actions.
I long ago decided to not just blindly/arbitrarily follow orders/rules/laws, no matter what position or experience or education/training that their "authors" happened to supposedly possess... I **always** use my own judgement/conscience in all my actions. Too many times in the past, I've gotten in knee-deep doo-doo MYSELF for someone else's screw-ups in reasoning/planning, only to have said "idiot in power" pull da ol' "ghost writer" AUTHORity trick on me, never admitting or even falsely denying ever having told me to proceed that way, just so that HE would not have to suffer any of the fallout from his own preposterous directives.
by QuacksO August 25, 2018