Obedience: Key to Social Functioning - Essay Sample

Introduction

In society, every member is supposed to follow a certain order. The ability to follow orders is influenced by the value of obedience. Obedience is a social technique whereby a person behaves in response to a direct command of another person, who is in power. As such, without the order, an individual would behave in a particular way. In society, obedience is an essential factor that helps society to function since people are influenced follow a certain order which helps to avoid action which violates moral values. According to various research, if a person follows an order with negative immoral results, the blame is directed to the authority. For many years, orders have been used to minimize inequality, especially from minority groups. In order to create a civil society, leaders must be responsible for their own actions. As such, orders they enact should aim at creating a positive social progressive. According to the Milgram in Milgram's agency theory, there are two major states of behaviors which influence the social factors. The first state is the autonomous state which influences people to dictate their own behaviors. In this kind of a state, people are responsible for the consequence of their results. Argentic is the second state whereby individuals follows the order which has been made by other people (Milgram, 1963). Those people who take the order are responsible for its outcome. A legitimate person is given the authority to direct other individuals' behaviors. As such, they are seen as an essential component in creating a positive social structure. On the other hand, an individual being ordered must be able to believe that the government will admit all obligation which may occur after applying a certain rule. This has been a key factor that influences how people accept and obey an order. As such, the essay examines whether obedience was/is not necessary.

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Normally, individuals who are in authority have the power to make orders which influence social growth. These individuals are seen as superior and thus, they have the ability to make wise decisions which helps to solve existing issues. However, there are several cases where people have been subjected to negative effects after following a certain order. Normally, most people are not fully aware of the order, but because a leader ordered it, they have to follow. In this case, people have shifted their responsibilities to the authority who are mandated to make rules. For instance, the leaders of the Nazi Party, Adolf Eichmann, and the Schutzstaffel planned and enacted the Holocaust since they believed that rules which were made by Fuhrer were pure. Fuhrer had ordered the leaders to direct the soldier to go and kill Jews. In this case, the leader did not review the consequences of the order but followed because they thought that Fuhrer was right. However, soldier directed the consequences and thus, Adolf was supposed to bear all outcome. Additionally, in America, police were ordered to subject Iraqi's prisoners to harass punishments. As such, these soldiers blindly followed the order and subjected the inmate to inhumane actions (Dambrun &Vatine, 2010). However, these punishments did not yield the target results but only caused a lot of suffering among the affected detainees. From the information, extreme obedient may not yield positive results. In some cases, extreme behaviors may cause negative effects. Normally, soldiers are trained to obey and thus, they are trained to follow ordered regardless of their consequences. As such, soldiers may end up engaging in actions which leads to negative human effects. In this case, inmates were physically, emotionally, and psychologically tortured due to extreme obedience from orders.

The authority is the key factor that determines how deploys and uses order. In some cases, extreme obedience of severally used by the government scheme in a negative way. Genuine authority is mandated to create rules and orders which focus on creating a positive environment (Hersh, 2004). This was a key technique which has been associated with massive development. However, some countries such as Japanese have been associated with massive killing after soldiers were ordered to engage in war. However, a large number of Okinawan people were killed, 150,000. This was about a third of the total population. Ethical, it was illegal for Japanese soldiers to use people as a shield. Application of human shield killed the largest percentage. The extreme order influenced soldiers to engage in the massive killing of innocent people. Destructive obedience is not perceived as a way of creating legitimacy. Engaging in a war that will create social activities which affect the stability of a place is perceived as destructive obedient. In this case, extreme obedience is seen as a way of increasing social crime such as violence. For instance, Japan ordered its citizens to kill Americans and also themselves. It was not logical for people to engage kill themselves so as to help the government to defeat the Americans.

Logically, individuals are more prone to respect and observe social norms and other orders. This has been perceived as an effective way to create stability in society. Most communities use extreme orders as a technique to enhance their development. In such communities, leaders are mandated to make rules which focus on people's needs. This has been a major advantage on the extreme obedience as people tries to concentrate on factors which will stimulate regional development. Additionally, such people fear uncertain orders such as war. This action makes them be so cautious about the kind of activities and decision they are making (Dambrun, 2010). However, creating orders which subjects people in negative action may trigger conflict and other negative effects.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the issue of extreme objectives is associated with both advantages and disadvantages. In regards, extreme obedience has more disadvantages as compared to the advantages. Extreme disobediences has facilitated to massive human suffering as they follow orders blindly. In this case, these people do not review the consequences associated with a certain order as they believe their leaders always make a wise decision. Some authorities have taken the advantages of these orders, and thus, they have influenced citizens to engage in conflicts and wars. These actions have caused massive killing because subordinates do not have the authority to question order. On the other hand, extreme obedience has a great influence on economic development. In this case, people focus on the same aim and avoid actions such may lead to negative effects. As such, they are so much cautious about the kind of decision they are making because they fear negative impacts. These communities are led by people who are so much concern about people affairs. In summary extreme objectives is not necessary because it is likely to subject people to negative effects.

References

Dambrun, M., & Vatine, E. (2010). Reopening the study of extreme social behaviors: Obedience to authority within an immersive video environment. European Journal of Social Psychology, 40(5), 760-773.

Hersh, S. M. (2004). Torture at Abu Ghraib: American soldiers brutalized iraqis. How far up does the responsibility go.

Kambayashi, T. Okinawa residents protest attempts to down plays arms role in mass suicides. Japan revises history texts.

Milgram, S. (1963). Behavioral study of obedience. The Journal of abnormal and social psychology, 67(4), 371.