in his
deliberate destruction of Dauvit's apple tree. Mac and the law would
give him the birch for that, but fortunately Mac and the law don't know
who did it. Tom's destructiveness is only the direct result of Mac's
authority. Suppression always has the same result; it turns a young
god into a young devil. Had I Tom in a free school all his activities
would be social and good.

And yet nearly every teacher believes in Mac's way. They suppress all
the time, and what is worst of all they firmly believe they are doing
the best thing.

"Look at Glasgow!" cried Mac the other night when I was talking about
the crime of authority. "Look at Glasgow! What happened there during
the war? Juvenile crime increased. And why? Because the fathers were
in the army and the boys had no control over them; they broke loose.
That proves that your theories are potty."

I believe that juvenile crime did increase during the war, and I
believe that Mac's explanation of the phenomenon is correct. The
absence of the father gave the boy liberty to be a hooligan. But no
boy wants to be a hooligan unless he has a strong rebellion against
authority. No boy is destructive if he is free to be constructive. I
think that the difference between Mac and myself is this: he believes
in original sin, while I believe in original virtue.

I wonder why it is so difficult to convert the authority people to the
new way of thinking. There must be a deep reason why they want to
cling to their authority. Authority gives much power, and love of
power may be at the root of the desire to retain authority. Yet I
fancy that it is deeper than that. In Mac, for instance, I think that
his quickness in becoming angry at Tom's insubordination is due to the
insubordination within himself. Like most of us Mac has a father
complex, and he fears and hates any authority exercised over himself.
So in squashing Tom's rebellion he is unconsciously squashing the
rebellion in his own soul. Tom's rebellion could not affect me because
I have got rid of my father complex, and his rebellion would touch
nothing in me.

Authority will be long in dying, for too many people cling to it as a
prop. Most people like to have their minds made up for them; it is so
easy to obey orders, and so difficult to live your own life carrying
your own burden and finding your own path. To live your own life . . .
that is the ideal. To discover yourself bravely, to realise yourself