If we can understand the compulsion behind our desire to dominate or be dominated, then perhaps we can free ourselves from the crippling effects of authority. We long to be sure, to be right, to succeed, to know; and this desire for certainty, for permanence, develops within us the authority of personal experience, while outwardly it creates the authority of the social, the family, religion, and so on. But merely ignoring authority, getting rid of its outward symbols, means very little.

To break with one tradition and conform to another, to abandon this leader and follow that one, is but a superficial gesture. If we are to intelligently perceive the whole process of authority, if we are to see its intrinsic nature, if we are to understand and transcend the desire for certainty, then we must have a very wide perception and discernment, we must be free; free not at the end, but from the beginning.