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Obedience to Authority
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This is an essay
on the dilemma of “Obedience to Authority” and how ordinary
people react to orders given to them. It draws on the
experiments conducted by Milgram as well as the thoughts of
other writers such as Lessing, Meyer and Fromm to argue against
the dangerous pitfalls of blindly following orders.
Obedience to Authority
No human
social organization can function without some degree of obedience to
authority, as the alternative would be anarchy leading to total
chaos. Hence we find some sort of a hierarchy in both the most
underdeveloped and the most civilized societies where certain
individuals exercise authority over others. Almost everyone will
agree that some degree of authority in certain individuals or groups
(and their obedience by other groups) is desirable for the proper
functioning of a society. The problem arises when the obedience to
authority is taken to extremes. Unfortunately, history has shown
that this happens time and again, usually with undesirable results.
It is this blind
obedience to authority that every individual with a conscience needs
to guard against.
The
conflict between compliance with the demands of those in authority
and individuals having private and sometimes different views, has
been a subject of debate since ancient times in religion and
philosophy. God’s command to Abraham to kill his son, being one such
example. Many psychologists and writers have thought about,
discussed and conducted experiments to understand this human
characteristic. The psychology experiments conducted by Stanley
Milgram in the 1960s and 70s to study obedience to authority among
ordinary individuals are, perhaps, the most significant and
startling. (“Baxter”)
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These
experiments were conducted at a time when the world was still
struggling to understand the atrocities committed by the Nazis in
World War II. Milgram’s experiments, conclusively showed that such
traits of obedience to authority as exhibited by the Germans, were
by no means confined to them or even to a particular set of
circumstances.
Milgram’s
experiment consisted of selection of “teachers” from ordinary people
who were asked to participate in an “experiment” in which the
teacher was to ask certain simple questions from a learner. In case
of an error or incorrect response from the learner, he was to be
given an electric shock through a generator. These shocks were to
start at a mild 15 volts and gradually increased to an extremely
painful (and lethal) level of 450 volts. During the experiment the
teacher was coaxed to continue giving the shocks to the learner. The
results of the experiment were most disturbing: most (60%) of the
“teachers” (who were ordinary people) continued to give the electric
shocks right up to the maximum (lethal) level of 450
volts,
just with a little bit of coaxing from the
psychologist.
Milgram
repeated his experiments in several other countries apart from the
USA, like Australia, South Africa and several European countries.
The response of the “teachers” in most of these countries was
similar. In one of these studies, 85% of the teachers readily
“obeyed” to give the maximum (lethal) punishment to the “erring”
learner. (“Baxter”).
Although
no such experiment can be 100% conclusive, the Milgram experiments
do shed considerable (and disturbing) light on the behavior of
ordinary people in obedience of authority. They also explain, to a
large extent, the seemingly perplexing behavior of many ordinary
Germans during World War II and some American soldiers in Vietnam.
(“Milgram,” Obedience to Authority..).
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Another writer who has carried out work of
significance on the subject of obedience to authority is Doris
Lessing. Although, not a professional sociologist or historian,
Lessing is a brilliant, self-taught thinker and observer. In her
book, Prisons We Choose to Live Inside (a collection of
lectures given by her in 1985) she propounds the thesis that groups
of people behave in predictable ways under certain given
circumstances. But she passionately believes that instead of going
along with the herd, those of us who value independent and
individual thinking, can resist the trend. In Lessing’s opinion this
can be done by being aware of the propaganda techniques used by the
Governments, advertisers and other people in positions of authority
to manipulate and control group behavior, and by consciously
resisting pressures to conform. Such pressures include peer
pressure, dogma and theories propagated by political and religious
leaders and parties. Lessing believes that we are by nature “group
animals” with a marked herd instinct and in order to fight this
instinct a conscious and deliberate effort is required. She claims
that because of our group-orientation “it is the hardest thing in
the world to maintain an individual dissident opinion” and remain a
member of a group. She advises us to recognize the “obedient streak”
in our nature and teach our children to be wary of it. (“Lessing,”
Prisons We Choose…”)
Erich Fromm
tackles the problem of
obedience to authority from a psychological and moral viewpoint. He
alerts the readers to the seductive comforts of obedience and the
discomfort one must endure in order to disobey. One of the main
points of Eric Fromm’s thesis is that any act which results in
submitting one’s will to someone else’s (or to a group) is a
cowardly act. On the other hand, any act that affirms one’s
individual will and autonomy is an act of freedom. In this context
he observes “among our most shameful memories is—how often we said
black was white because other people were saying it.” (“Fromm,”
On Disobedience…)
Jo’ana Meyer is a sociologist at the Rutger’s University
who has carried out valuable research on children’s susceptibility
to leading and suggestive interviews in the context of court
testimony. She has discussed the effects of stress, prompting and
imagination on children’s memories and powers of recall. She
stresses the importance of Milgram’s research and points out that
children are likely to obey authority at an even higher level than
the adults in Milgrim’s experiments. Meyer has made important
suggestions about ways to interview children
that would increase the
accuracy of their testimony. (“Meyer’” Inaccuracies in Children’s….).
The theme of obedience to authority has even greater
significance in the military environment. The issue has been
explored in the recent popular cinema through films such as The
General’s Daughter and more significantly in the 1999 court-room
drama A Few Good Men. The film, starring Tom Cruise and Jack
Nicholson, presents both sides of the need for absolute obedience
versus the right of individual conscience in the military.
The issue of following
orders versus human rights in the military has been intelligently
handled. The film does not treat the issue in a one-sided or black
and white manner but gives both sides of the subject. (“A Few
Good Men: Review”)
[back to Top]
This is perhaps the crux of the issue—almost
everything in the world having more than one perspective or side to
it. Similarly, the issue of obedience to authority cannot be a
simple black and white question. One cannot have a society with
absolutely no obedience to authority or even too little authority.
It will simply result in disastrous anarchy: Individuals have to
relinquish some of their own autonomy for the welfare of the larger
group. On the other extreme when the state refuses to allow
individuals to exercise their right of freedom, we move closer to
totalitarianism. So the best answer in any civilized society is to
take the middle path. This has even more relevance to our
circumstances today. The question that we have to ask ourselves is:
Are we taking the middle path in the wake of the 11th
September events? Is the bomb them into oblivion “majority opinion”
as reflected in the polls to be followed without questions or should
the issues be analyzed in a more dispassionate manner?
Works Cited
1. Fromm,
Erich. On Disobedience and Other Essays .Routledge & Kegan
Paul, London;1984.
2. Meyer,
Jo’na F. Inaccuracies in Children's Testimony: Memory,
Suggestibility, or Obedience
to Authority? The Hayworth Press. New York. 1997
3.
Lessing, Doris May. Prisons We Choose to Live Inside. Harper
Collins: New York 1987
4.
Milgram, Stanley.
Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View.
Harper & Row, New York;
1974.
5. Baxter, Grant.
Psychology: obedience. Web Page. University of Otago.
Retrieved on
January 21, 2001 from
<http://designweb.otago.ac.nz/grant/psyc/OBEDIANCE.HTML>
6.
“A Few Good Men: Review.” E-film critic website.
Retrieved on
January 21, 2001 from
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