Book excerpt: Human beings have the inherent ability to live their lives in a self-determined and species-appropriate way, meaning oriented towards the conservation of the environment and the resources. This ability has however been deliberately suppressed for thousands of years by the elites that are in power, previously an alliance between throne and altar and currently by corporations and politicians. In order to increase and ensure their own power they have always understood how to make people dependent and to inculcate them "to serve with joy and obedience". Thus authoritarian social structures emerged and consequently people are treated like pets: slavery, serfdom and wage-dependency today. This development is currently reaching its limits. The global crisis has made it patently clear: those who would like to retain earth's resources for their children do not have the power to do so because they have relinquished this power to the elites. And the elites, who do have the power, are not interested. The aspects of these authoritarian structures (Church, corporations) and the ramifications thereof on the consciousness of the dependents are examined critically. Strategies to achieve a required change of awareness, changing from heteronomy to self-determination, are shown here. A renunciation of dependencies - even consumption! - enables more self-determination and freedom.