Social Authoritarianism

An extract from Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam's Wings of Fire.

A characteristic feature of the social authoritarianism is its insidious ability to addict people to the endless pursuit of external rewards, wealth, prestige, position, promotion, approval of ones lifestyle by others, ceremonial honors, and status symbols of all kinds.

To successfully pursue these goals they have to learn elaborate rules of etiquette and familiarize themselves with customs, traditions, protocols and the like. The youth of today must delearn this self defeating way of living life. The culture of working for materials possessions of rewards must be discarded.

How do some people feel so secure without anything to fall back upon? They took sustenance from within. They relied more on inner signals and less on the external cues, that is mentioned above. Are you aware of inner signals of yours? Do you trust them? Do you have the focus of control over your life in your own hands? Take this, the more decisions you make avoiding external pressures, which will constantly try to manipulate and immobilize you, the better your life will be. The better your society will become. The entire nation will benefit by having strong inner directed people as their leaders. A citizenry that thinks for itself and country in which people know and trust themselves as individuals would be virtually immune to manipulation by any unscrupulous authority or vested interest.

Your willingness to use your own inner resources to invest your life, especially your imagination will bring you success, when you undertake a task from your own uniquely individual standpoint, you will become a person to reckon with.

You me everyone on this planet is sent free by him to cultivate all the creative potential within us and live at peace with our own conscience. We differ in the way we make our choices and evolve our destiny. Life is a difficult game. You can win it only by retaining your birthright to be a person. And to retain this right, you will have to be willing to take the social or external risks involved in ignoring pressures to do things the way others say they should be done.