Stuart Buck cites an interesting Chesterton quote. To quote a portion of what he quotes:
The nature of my supposed slavery I need not name and do not propose specially to discuss. It is shared by every sane man when he looks up a train in Bradshaw. That is, it consists in thinking a certain authority reliable; wich is entirely reasonable.
We live in what is supposed to be a fairly skeptical age, one where people think for themselves and do not just accept what they are told. It should not be surprising, then, that the result is that people often just accept what they are not told.
Rejection of authority does not mean rejection of all authority — it is impossible to live in this world for more than a few days without trusting any authority — what it means is rejecting all authority which is not overmastering. Put in somewhat less kindly language, it means being as foolish as possible without getting oneself killed.
The problem with this approach to life is that it is not really an approach to life. At best it is an approach from death, and really it is not as systematic even as that sort of pessimism. Avoiding all authorities which one can at the moment is simply the attempt to live as much like a beast as possible. Perhaps it is appropriate that pets have never been more popular nor more anthropomorphised.
This is something which I've really been trying to figure out recently. Why is it that we live in so irrational an age?