The Authorities

An interesting use of language is that of 'the authorities', in the sense of those who possess and administer worldly power. Attempting to lift the word out of the soporific of the everyday usage, it seems best to fit as a throwback to an ancient religiously stratified society. Those at the apex of power are The Authorities: the possessors of mysterious hidden knowledge denied to the lumpen masses, which encloses these Authorities within a circle of power. That knowledge which is within this circle is what places them above the profane, and by necessity invisible to the profane. One could imagine Borges writing a short story on a similar theme.

Bertrand de Jouvenel writes:
The phenomenon called authority is at once more ancient and more fundamental than the phenomenon called state; the natural ascendancy of some men over others is the principle of all human organizations and all human advances.
While an online dictionary leads us back to the prosaic in describing Authority as
a. The power to enforce laws, exact obedience, command, determine, or judge.
b. One that is invested with this power, especially a government or body of government officials.

What is the connection between Jouvenal's natural ascendency of some men over others, thus rewarding them with their authority, and our modern wielders of worldly power in its various political and economic forms? Authority naturally meaning that those with it are placed above those over whom they wield this authority. Are these people really possessed of a natural ascendancy over others? Certainly interesting to see these Authorities as the equivalent of the ancient priestly class described earlier, self-selected and absolute.