Healing Legacy Authoritarian Trauma

Many people think hierarchies are the normal and natural way for people to organize.

For thousands of years, humans have lived in hierarchical, mostly authoritarian societies. The mindsets, beliefs, and practices of these cultural arrangements have been passed from one generation to another, including assigned rights, privileges, duties, and obligations.  Hierarchical societies made sense at one time. Now, with so much knowledge available to so many, hierarchical structures are being challenged for good reason. 

Hierarchies have been primarily authoritarian dictatorships that offered little real freedom and significant risk if you stepped out of line. Obedience was required which permitted many different forms of abuse. Some still think the abuse is normal and natural. Many people are working heroically to break the cycle of abuse and heal themselves and others. 

Abuse has not always been visible. It has also been sanctioned in numerous ways:

• by legal systems where property rights, even to this day, overrule human rights
• the valuing of warrior skills over caring skills
• social structures that rank people by color, sex, nationality etc. 

Authoritarians Don’t Do Accountability

Authoritarians all over the world have been demonstrating they do not do accountability. 

It is the nature of hierarchical, authoritarian systems to support and protect the authoritarian. They do not answer to or account to the people.  They will eliminate accountability structures and replace them with loyalists. Democratic strategies that create space for the people are unwelcome.

Authoritarians have rights. Everyone else has obligations to them. This is why they use violence and think they have a right to and that it is right to do so. So much legacy trauma comes from these toxic beliefs. 

Democracies, which require educated, strong citizens, are the death knell of authoritarian arrangements.

That is why investing in your healing, identifying your strengths, and developing your skills is so important. 

An Authoritarian Knows Your Value But Doesn’t Want You To Know

Your energy is finite. You need to invest it wisely. If you are spending your time defending yourself from abusive authoritarians, you have little time for your personal development and healing.

When you do your healing work, you free up your energy which makes space for the good in you, and your inner beauty. You have to heal to shine, and when you shine you heal. 

The Key: We Need The Good In You

Older human societies had different attitudes about people and their value. Today, we have come to value the good in ourselves and each other. We are learning to heal the wounds of the past. We are going to heal the planet.

We need the good in you and in everyone, to break the cycle of abuse that has made life so difficult for so many. The easiest way to do that is to cultivate a practice that focuses on the good in yourself, others, and in life. You can be a part of that beautiful journey. 

Photo by Michael Dziedzic on Unsplash