Citizens don't want to stone someone every year; rather, the peer pressure they experience is why they don't go against the norm. Old Man Warner is one of those authority figures because he thinks the tradition should remain even if in most places it is no longer used. In the north, the village people talk about giving up the lottery, even though Old Man Warner insists that they are just a bunch of fools and that nothing is ever good enough for them (Jackson 215). Old Man Warner is an example of irrational authority because others kind of want to give up the lottery and with good reason; the interests of the people are ignored by the authoritative figure (Fromm 363). The authoritative symbol is the black box, which is used to make the lottery. While it may not seem like a box can control people; he has a sense of tradition and because of this he manipulates the people in town into believing that they have to participate in the lottery otherwise something bad will happen to all of them (Jackson