Monday 25 May 2015

Day 290: Realizing your Authority in Life

 

“The Milgram experiment on obedience to authority figures was conducted by Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram. They measured the willingness of study participants to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts conflicting with their personal conscience.” - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment

This experiment was redone by the Curiosity series and what they have founds is that most of the participants continued the shock administration despite not wanting to – they simply did what they were told by the authority figure.

What this showed is that most people will give in to Authority and obey despite their moral confliction. We can sit here and judge the participants and tell ourselves that if we were there we would not obey, but stand firm and say no to shocking, but that is not really true. The fact is that you would most likely have simply obeyed. We are doing this already.

From the very moment we enter this world and start participating we have accepted this world the way it is. We did not question why we needed to buy food, or why there are so many homeless – we simply accepted the system, never questioning it.

But what is authority really? Is Authority enforcement? Domination? Fear? Anger? Control? It’s not to control or to dominate or to enforce your will onto others – that is how authority is currently being abused in this world. No, that is not what Authority is. What does it mean to have Authority? What gives you Authority?

An example would be learning something from another. Let’s say you want to know how to plant a tree, and so you get someone who has the knowledge and experience on how to plant trees. Here this master tree planter shows you carefully how to do this tasks and the reason you are listening and doing what this master is showing you is because He has a greater understanding of the task at hand. And put simply that is what real Authority is. Its leadership based on supporting another and showing/teaching others what you have learned – you have the experience and within that you’re well versed with this task and thus have the Authority.

Don’t look at Authority and think about this world system or Law or police force or Government or fear. Those things are limited and abused expressions of the word authority. Real Authority is all about supporting others and yourself and sharing/teaching others things you have learned and have experience in.

Participate in the Weekly focus of Authority - find out more here: http://forum.desteni.org/viewtopic.php?f=14&p=58202#p58202

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