OBEDIENCE/DISOBEDIENCE

I have always found that there is a thin line between obedience and disobedience.  I have devoted one of my papers this semester to the ideals of this very topic and during the course of writing the paper my own beliefs jumped back and forth.  When is stealing, simply not stealing?  When is murder, simply not murder?  I have found that there is not always a black and white viewpoint, and there is not always a black and white justification to examples like the ones previously mentioned.  There are areas and shades of grey that conflicts with law, rules, and regulations that have been set into place to protect society norms, and these areas are not easily defined and that is where the confusion lies.    

Merriam-Webster defines disobedience as, refusal or failure to obey rules, laws, etc. (2014).  As humans we are all subjected to the laws and logic of obedience and disobedience, and at that point we make subjective decisions on whether or not to follow such laws, however, with the freedom to choose free will what leads us to ultimately make the decision, and how far is one willing to be obedient and obey by the rules?  And when disobedience acceptable?

Milgram’s Obedience Experiment’s helped identify, how far will people are willing to go to show obedience and comply with authority.  Milgram’s experiment was in short, an experiment that was conducted at Yale University to see “how far participants were willing to go?”  The findings from this experiment were contrary to what Stanley Milgram was expecting.  The methodology of the experiment consisted of three men one was the Learner, one was the Teacher, and the last was the Experimenter (The Learner and Experimenter are in confederation).  The Experiment and Teacher are separated from the Learner; the Teacher is led to believe that every time the Learner answers a question wrong then they must administer a electrical shock (remember separate rooms, cannot actually see the Learner), the Teacher is placed in front of the “shock generator” ranging from 15 - 450 volts in 15 volt increments.  According to David Myers, Social Psychology, when Milgram conducted the experiment with 40 men—a vocational mix of 20- to 50-year-olds—26 of them (65 percent) progressed all the way to 450 volts (2012,  pg. 197).  Sixty-five percent complied and then obeyed, and when Milgram brought this experiment up in front of 110 psychiatrist, college students, and middle-class adults, not a one believed that anyone would proceed to the 450 volts mark (Myers, 2012, pg. 197).  This leaves one glaring question “What causes the high rate of obedience?”  Myers writes, in the earlier training of SS officers in Nazi Germany, the military selected candidates based on their respect for and submission to authority. But such tendencies alone do not a torturer make. Thus, they would first assign the trainee to guard prisoners, then to participate in arrest squads, then to hit prisoners, then to observe torture, and only then to practice it. Step by step, an obedient but otherwise decent person evolved into an agent of cruelty. Compliance bred acceptance. If we focus on the end point—450 volts of torture administered—we are aghast at the evil conduct. If we consider how one gets there—in tiny steps—we understand (2014, pg. 204).   

When can being disobedient, the right thing to do? I have very strong ideals and feelings towards civil obedience and disobedience.  I truly believe that rules, regulations, and laws are in place to protect the greater good of a society (most of the time), and all members of such society must adhere or punishment will be enforced.  However, making this claim comes a certain level of ignorance (on my part) knowing that not all crimes are acts of going against society and are an act of survival rather than evil.  The ideals of rules, regulations, and laws are circumstantial and situational; and that rarely do humans perceive their world in merely black or white; we see it in mostly grey.  This means that everything that this life has to offer has a medium, a middle, a not right but not wrong area, that we all can subjectively adhere to when making inferences on our own, instead of as a collective society.  However, not only to be able to pass judgment on individuals and their acts, they too must be able to understand the laws, rules, and regulations that have been in place and are enforced before performing the act.  One must understand the consequences for their act, and are willing to accept responsibility for their actions.  The accountability should not strictly come from society to look at acts through grey lenses; it must come from the individuals as well, to keep order for the act itself and the logic of the act to be judged.

References

Disobedience. (2014). Merriam-Webster. Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/disobedience

Myers, D. G. (2012). Chapter 6. In Social Psychology (11th ed., pp. 197-204). New York: McGraw-Hill.