Yep, as you say from an early age we're taught not just to obey authority, but that the person with authority is somehow better than us. Rarely do we stop to question this hierarchy as it's so ingrained in us. There's an interesting quote I came across a while back:

As Ellwood P. Cubberley, Dean of the Stanford University School of Education, put it in 1898:

Our schools are, in a sense, factories, in which the raw materials – children – are to be shaped and fashioned into products… The specifications for manufacturing come from the demands of 20th century civilization, and it is the business of the school to build its pupils according to the specifications laid down. source [here](http://carolblack.org/on-the-wildness-of-children/)

The education and social systems are deliberately designed to keep us peasants in our place and obedient forever. And we are! Yes boss, no boss, three bags full boss. That's why you're so right when you say not to base worth on authority, money or material things... because these things shape our perspective of where we rank in society, and affect our actions accordingly. So yes, value yourself and others not on these things, but on your raw human qualities! Good post, thank you :-)