Blind Obedience - 2109 Words

Name: Andraie Lewis Eng. 122 May 8,2013 Blind obedience Society often view obedience as a good quality or trait to have; employers want obedient employees and parents often wish for obedient children. Being obedient means that an individual shows respect for an authority figure and will carry out the instructions they are given; when someone is obedient they are widely accepted by society, because they do whatever it is that society asks of them. But obedience carried too far can have disastrous consequences to both the individual and society; this is referred to as blind obedience. Blind obedience is when a person follows authority without even thinking about the†¦show more content†¦A lot of people argued that Milgram’s experiment was unethical, but made sense logically. His †experiment was carried out in the shadow of the Holocaust. The trial of Adolf Eichmann had the world wondering how the Nazis were able to persuade so many ordinary Germans to participate in the murder of innocent people† (Cohen A24). During world war two (WW II), Adolf Hitler, the leader of the Nazis’ came to power through his dictatorship which ultimately led to the demise of millions of Jews in order to create a master race. With the obedience of the militia, he rose to power annihilating any freedoms Jewish people had. His tactics were brutal and irreconcilably fatal for all who disobeyed him. We can only assume that the Germans followed Hitler’s’ gruesome orders out of fear or just out of ignorance but as Tod Hoffman mentioned in his article from the â€Å"Gazette,† †How ordinary Germans were transformed into Nazi butchers remains a compelling historical and sociological question† (I12). Those Germans blindly obeying Hitler’s inhumane orders is only apart of the widely astonishing scale of people obeying authority and following orders without even thinking for themselves. †Even among those who were not rabid National Socialists, faith in, and support for, Hitler was blind and boundless. Whether this was genuine or a function of having lived for years under a totalitarian regime that valued obedience above all otherShow MoreRelatedThe Blind Obedience in â€Å"the Lottery†2459 Words   |  10 PagesThe Blind Obedience in â€Å"The Lottery† â€Å"The Lottery† by Shirley Jackson written and published in 1948, takes place on June 27th in a small town of three hundred people. Villagers gather together at around ten o’clock for one of the main rituals called ‘the lottery‘, which takes place in the central square. â€Å"The lottery was conducted as were the square dances† (Jackson 31) illustrating the timely scheduled event. It is a normal day with â€Å"the fresh warmth of a full summer day† (Jackson 1). The menRead MoreThe Blind Obedience And Authority1237 Words   |  5 PagesBlind Obedience to Authority Millions of people were killed in Nazi Germany in concentration camps however, Hitler wouldn’t have been able to kill them all, nor could just a handful of people. Obedience is when society influences where/ when an individual acts in response to a direct order from another individual, who is usually the authority figure. It is assumed that without such an order the person would not have acted in this way. In order to obey authority, the obeying person has to acceptRead MoreEssay about Blind Obedience700 Words   |  3 Pages Blind Obedience nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;While sitting in church on Sunday going through the same motions of every Sunday, my son leans over to ask, â€Å"Why do we have to stand up for this prayer?† My response â€Å"because we are supposed to†. Reading â€Å"The Children’s Story† by James Clavell, made me think a little more about this question that I had no answer for. A person needs to be able to explain why he does what he does. Children are innocent and unknowing; they are like a blank piece of paperRead MoreAnalysis Of Just Do What The Pilot Tells You831 Words   |  4 PagesDalrymple, is a British physician who discusses why blind obedience is discouraged. His article, â€Å" Just Do What the Pilot Tells You†, was first published in the New Statesman. In this specific article, he touches on points in our lives when we are supposed to do what we are told. Disobedience is when a person chooses to disobey some sort of order they were directed to do. The main point that the author is trying to make is that neither obedience or disobedience should be more prominent than the otherRead MoreAuthority Is A Fundamental Part Of Life Essay2069 Words   |  9 Pagesuse authority to maintain order and obedi ence throughout communities. Parents possess characteristics of authority in order to teach children right from wrong. As well as, teachers are considered authority figures since they need to control and maintain obedience in the classroom. Authority cannot exist without obedience. Society is developed on this notion. Without authority, and its required obedience, disorder and disruption would occur. But how much obedience to authority is necessary? When isRead MoreBlind Obedience in Shirley Jacksons The Lottery1059 Words   |  5 Pages The author of â€Å"The Lottery† wrote this story â€Å"to shock the story’s readers with a graphic demonstration of the pointless violence and general inhumanity in their own lives† (Jackson 211). This story reflects human behavior in society to show how although rules, laws or traditions do not make sense, people follow them. Throughout the story the three main symbols of how people blindly follow senseless traditions were the lottery itself, the color black, and the hesitation that people had towardsRead MoreBlind Obedience in Shirley Jacksons The Lottery Essay2503 Words   |  11 PagesJames Evans believes that since the story was written in the immediate aftermath of World War II and the holocaust, it raised (and can still raise) important questions concerning ‘the power of mass psychology, the possibility that blind adherence to tradition will forestall judgment, and the ease with which responsibility can be denied.’† (J. Stark qtd. in Evans 119) Other critics simply focus on man’s inhumanity to man. Helen Nebeker notes: Numerous critics have carefullyRead More Essays on Jacksons Lottery: Dangers of Blind Obedience Exposed684 Words   |  3 PagesDangers of Blind Obedience Exposed in The Lottery      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Most of us obey every day without a thought. People follow company dress code, state and federal laws and the assumed rules of courtesy. Those who do disobey are usually frowned upon or possibly even reprimanded. But has it even occurred to you that in some cases, disobedience may be the better course to choose? In her speech Group Minds, Doris Lessing discusses these dangers of obedience, which are demonstrated in Shirley JacksonsRead More Essay on Shirley Jacksons The Lottery - Blind Obedience Exposed954 Words   |  4 PagesBlind Obedience Exposed in The Lottery    The annual ritualistic stoning of a villager in Shirley Jacksons The Lottery parallels tradition in American culture.   This paper will inform the reader of the effect tradition has on characters in the short story The Lottery and how traditions still strongly influence peoples lives in america.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Christian weddings hold many traditions and superstitions that seemingly defy logic.   Although most couples no longer have arrangedRead MoreEssay on Obedience1004 Words   |  5 PagesErin Poulsen ACP W131 Mr. Scanlan 19 October, 2015 Comparative Critique Obedience and Disobedience has been a part of key moments in history. Many have studied forms of obedience to learn how it affects people and situations. For example, Stanley Milgram conducted a well-known experiment in which the subject, named the â€Å"teacher† must shock the â€Å"learner† every time he doesn’t remember a word pair from a memory test. The focus of this study is on the teacher, and whether they will administer