Strive to be an individual

What do we mean by the term walkabout and what stimulates the Aborigines to do it ?

In our modern way of living we are constrained by many things. We follow a regimented life, to conform and fit in to societies model of what "our" values should be.

The Aborigine on the other hand has a deep sense of his own destiny. His life is effected by the spirit world and the direct effect this "other world" has on him.
He communions with the past, his ancestors, provide a  connection to past events and confirm that his life is no more than short journey through a greater drama ?

When he goes walkabout he, in effect, disregards the conformities of life and sets off to find a deeper consolation with the spirit world within his ancestral home. A belief system will provide the fortitude and the conviction he needs to survive.

Anyone can go and trial himself by escaping the claustrophobic constrains that embed us all in seeking solace through conformity. Society constructs a web of rules to pacify its members and thereby control any outcome. The "individual" is judged an outsider, not a team player and is therefore suspect. 

The go it alone person is questioned as if there is something missing, don't they recognise the importance of belonging to the pack, of being recognised through comparison ?

How often in life we join something as if "membership" were the substance of who we are.   If we don't wish to join then we are unsubstantial, have no value and are therefore ignored.

To be sent to Coventry was a fate worse than death. You were ignored, workmates refused to speak to you and this rejection by your peers was harder to bear than being 

dead ? This then is the power of the psychological rejection by those around who count.  In essence the pressure to conform is tremendous and the strength needed to be an individual is profound !!!

         

Today's pressure to fit in, is greater than ever before. The media is on our case, every day by providing the image that the "power behind the scenes" uses to keep us digging into our pockets to buy into a lifestyle we are informed, is the lifestyle we should all attain to !!

In years gone by one had little peer group pressure to effect who we were. Our main control was within the family and they were proud of a child who showed initiative to plough their own furrow. 

Society was far less concerned about the control, the need to exert pressure to consume, the need to confirm the text of Political Conformity, the need to deny ones own feelings about a range of subjects that the "Powers" have made their position known and everyone is expected to follow.