Great post, Nya!  I agree.  I particularly liked your comment:

We have an unfortunate tendency as a species to give away our power to anyone who tells us they know more than us, or anyone who scares us by telling us they have power over our primal fear areas (eg death). Hence the disproportionate influence of medicine men, doctors, priests and religious authorities. We think they know something we don't about death, and we are all too willing to let them pronounce for us.

I believe that a lot of this has to do with our education, both in schools and in families (at least in my experience in Britain and the U.S.A.).  Add a good dose of family dysfunction to all of that, and voila, you get a society of codependent believers who at least contribute to the creation of politicians and "leaders" of all sorts who are just plying their own agendas!  Look at the U.S A!  We've got a dry drunk for a president.  Nearly half the country didn't want war in Iraq--but the sad thing is, more than half the country "went along" in the hopes that our hero knew what he was doing.  Well, this may seem OT, but it's not really.  It's so important to get information, make conscious choices, and by all means, examine one's beliefs!  This was denied in the land of the premies, with fairy tale language like "don't give in to the doubtmaker!"   Like it was some little demon that was going to whisk you away to the dark woods, and well...you finish the story.  And all the time, our cognac-tippling leader was the real demonic force behind the so-called "message".

There's lots in the world that can be disempowering.  But we're waking up, in this day and age, and speaking truth to power!  That's the great service of this forum, for sure.  Education! 

My 2 cents worth!

~shelagh