Roles can consume us, distorting our sense of self. True flexibility lies in balancing personal authenticity with external expectations. Challenging authority, together, can foster justice.
Yesterday I was sitting on the couch in the living room, looking ahead. I looked outside with staring eyes after an intense day for me. There’s quite a lot going on around me right now, and I’m dealing with a lot of authoritarian people. People who, like you and me, play a role in everyday life.
Are you, like me, fairly flexible?
People who, like you and me, play a role in the life of the world are often unaware that it is only a role. In many cases, this role is completely separate from who they are as human beings. Unfortunately, these people are often unaware of this. These people often surrender completely to this role. By choosing a role, you often have to live according to the requirements that this “desired” role entails. After all, a role usually also includes a certain attitude and behavior that you very often let go of in your private life. Some people identify themselves with the profile of the job and maintain this attitude even after their working hours.
Do you have the role you want?
They love the respect that other people around them show them. Many people don’t know these people well enough to know that this is the case, but are we talking about coping here? Coping means: Adapting your behavior to the other person, in order to be happy yourself, and to be able to stay happy. Many of these people lose sight of who they actually are because of the coping they use on a daily basis. Often, they don’t know at all how others see them or think about them. Because they often behave forcedly, they can cause a lot of unrest in their environment. There are often many people who despise them and want nothing to do with them outside of the often-business interests.
Picture: linkedin
Do you know what others think about you?
These “others” often see you as an authority, or as the one who can exert a lot of influence on them. For example, if you are a civil servant, a teacher, or a manager of these people, they will often not dare to contradict you, so you will never really find out what they really think about you. If you think about this carefully, you probably recognize those people yourself, also in your environment. You probably know which people feel the same way about you. People you know disagree with you, but never contradict you. You will never know what they think about you, and you will never hear their real opinion of you, because they think they are too dependent on you.
Do you know any of these dependencies?
Unfortunately, we are all familiar with these dependencies. It only becomes difficult when people in their attitude, because of their position or level of education, consistently want to bend others to their will with a completely “wrong” attitude and behavior. I don’t want to mention the Nazis, Romans and/or people of other faiths here, but these are examples of this, in my view, misplaced behavior. I think Hitler, Napoleon, Mussolini and maybe even Vladimir Putin are good examples of this, but fortunately these are only extremes. But they also started that way in their lives. Many “normal” people will often fear reprisals if they experience this type of behavior.
Could we have stopped Hitler and Putin in their behavior sooner?
You’re probably familiar with the term “followers”? Do you often think about the possible consequences of giving pushback to someone who has to or can decide on matters that are important to you? Civil servants, teachers or doctors, people who can often change your future with the click of a mouse? A well-known saying is often something that people like you and I think about: “Arrogance often comes before a fall.” But who in their environment is brave enough to bring about that fall? Who is the one who, despite the possible negative consequences, “Keeps his back straight?” Who still believes in righteousness in this life?
Do you think life is just?
Picture: Vladimir Putin, Wikipedia
What I find funny about this situation is that in practice, there are very few who dare to take on this challenge. In my experience, there are few known “whistleblowers” who have escaped without damage. This is happening, in my opinion, because there are so few Whistleblowers standing up currently. There are relatively few of them, and those few are crushed by the often university-educated opponents. They cover each other’s backs just a little too often in my opinion. If people stand up in unison against these coping-overwhelmed types, the outcome may well be a revolution in which heads eventually roll. Just think of Marie Antoinette and Louis the Sixteenth who ended up on the scaffold. It probably won’t take off that quickly, but I suggest challenging the current orders a little more. Connect with like-minded people and go for your own happiness, what do you think about this?
