Traditional vs Rational

When I was younger if I saw a person with unbelievable amount of physical strength I saw them as powerful.  When you’re older you may be working at your job and find you can only carry one bag of mulch while this other person exhibits power as they carry three.  Though physical power only goes so far because if someone is stronger than you doesn't mean you will listen to someone. With that we can see power as the likelihood that demands are obeyed by someone.  When I was younger there was no doubt that both my parents had power in our family.  It wasn't just my mother always saying wait till your father gets home, but rather I would have my nose in the corner moments after I finished the act of my disobedient actions or words.  Though this stems out more than just power, my parents have authority.  They had legitimate domination over us, legally till eighteen, but could ultimately influence both of us for the rest of our lives.  

Weber explained three forms of authority; rational, traditional, and charismatic.  When I was younger and still to this day there was been a great amount of traditional authority in my life.  My parents always taught about the law (rational authority) like don’t steal, don’t vandalize, and even when were younger do not kill people.  Even though that rational form of authority is always there, my parents’ traditional form had a much larger impact on me.  What they had taught me throughout my life allowed me to evolve morals that don’t even have me thinking about breaking the rational law, to an extent.  I am a twenty one year old so I do find myself speeding sometimes and getting a little rowdy on the weekends but needless my parents had a big influence on my outlook that I possess today.

Weber did see that in our society that rational authority is taking over traditional authority and I can see how we might see this.  Within the past 20 years or so we can see a big rise in teen pregnancy.  I do believe that people do start families early by choice, but I think that a majority of these families are not planned.  A great example is the show ‘Teen Mom’ on MTV.  You can get an insight on a lot of these females’ lives as they deal with having a child at ages under 18 years old.  You get glimpses of immature men constantly fighting and walking out on the family, in certain circumstances, while there are a few that try to stand behind the female carrying their child.  With this as an example it is obvious that these children will not have a strong influence with traditional authority.  I can see that in my life I have had a big influence traditionally but I can see how the rational authority is on an up rise.  It is convenient for adults to tell their children to go watch TV or play games on the tablet rather than interact with them.  Though this might be a short term solution, in the long term you are really missing out on a lot of ‘traditional family functions.’  In a society that is always based on going faster and faster it almost seems as if we don’t have time for our own family. 

I believe that Weber’s idea about the rise of rational authority in our society and the lowering influence of traditional authority is very applicable in today’s society.  Ultimately it is up to individual families themselves to choose which one of these factors will be more influential on their kids.