Society, because it includes culture, family, and community, has a profound effect on individuals -- often much more than government. Those who want to find and express their inner quality have it easier if society supports these efforts. If society's institutions narrowly prescribe what individuals should be or strongly resist change, the expression of the true self can be difficult or even dangerous.

Society can benefit if it encourages creative self-expression, but -- like government -- there is nothing in nature mandating that society support people who want to improve themselves. Usually there are social institutions (churches, foundations, organizations, movements) that encourage individual self-discovery, but often these are based on predetermined models of what an "ideal" person should be.

Unless an individual is fortunate in having social support, one must be willing to search for, discover, and express the inner quality as a solitary endeavor. The determination to become one's true self is completely within one's own control.

This realization can be enormously self-empowering. The irony is that, as one understands more of the inner quality, there is a growing awareness that goodness is almost everywhere to be found. At some level of human consciousness, there is an inner connectivity -- a brotherhood or sisterhood, a community -- of people who share a common desire to see the world improve and mankind to achieve its highest potential.

It is this common sense of good will that makes possible the integration of the individual's inner quality with the gradual improvement of social and political institutions.