We surrender an immense amount of power and control over our lives when we blindly accept and follow authority figures. There is nothing wrong with trusting someone you respect, admire, and resonate with. The problem arises when this trust is freely given based solely on someone’s position, professional accomplishments, material wealth, fame, educational attainment, and other status indicators.
We forget that the authority figures are not infallible and often get things wrong. Just look at the course of human history. There was a time when the authority figures discovered (or assumed) and then propagated the belief that the earth was flat. Imagine millions of people believing that you could fall off the earth and into outer space if you traveled far enough in any direction.
Today, we might laugh and dismiss that notion as simply primitive thinking from which we have greatly advanced, but you know that authority figures are still fucking up even in these “modern times”.
Let me ask you something. How many planets are there in our solar system? If I asked you this question prior to 2006, you might have responded “9”: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. This is what has been taught for hundreds of years, and is what we were required to rote-memorize because the authority figures told us to.
As you may know, in 2006, the authority figures, some of the brightest, most educated astrophysicists in the world, changed their minds and decided that Pluto is not a planet anymore. It is just a big piece of floating ice somewhere after Neptune.
I am being facetious to make a point and to get you to understand that the nature of knowledge and discovery is ever-evolving. Authority figures get it wrong all the time and try to come to a better understanding after realizing their error.
You possess all of the same mental faculties of authority figures and should not abdicate all of your critical and imaginative thought. Trust and obey yourself more often, especially when it comes to the important matters in your life, such as what truly makes you happy, what success means to you, what is your worth as a human being, and what is the right path for you to take.
Just as there are authority figures deciding and spreading the message of what qualifies as a planet, there are countless more trying to tell you how to live your life when it comes to more relevant and important matters.
We explicitly and implicitly receive messages like, “you should pursue money if you want to be happy” and “your worth and value to society is determined by the prestige of your career”.
Those who depend on the “authority without” blindly accept these messages and allow them to impact the course of their life. Those who respect the “authority within” question all messages and make the authoritative decision whether to accept them or not.
Albert Einstein believed that, “The only source of knowledge is experience.” Yes, I am using an appeal to authority to influence you. But this authority figure, often acclaimed as a “genius”, is basically telling you to trust yourself and your own experiences for the knowledge that governs your life.
Ignore what I say. Seek authority within.
Art of Sleeping Awake 