A Few Good Men: Obedience To Authority

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Melissa Hughes W131 22320 Comparative Analysis Rough Draft Obedience to Authority Obedience is the state, fact, or instance of obeying, or a willingness to obey; submission. Most people do not think about obedience as much more than doing what they are told; they do not try to see what the outcome of their actions; they unconsciously comply. Blind obedience to authority can be defined as what people do when they think laws should be obeyed just because the law exists. Such unconscious failure to think about their actions “because we have always done it this way”; “because my boss said so”; “because it’s the law”; “because I was only following orders”; leads them to commit morally corrupt acts. They commit these acts believing that they are doing nothing wrong because they are following the law. Whether it is a positive or negative outcome they do what they are…show more content…
It is important to realize that Dawson had previously disobeyed an official command and was disciplined for it by receiving a below average rating on a conduct report. This incident helps understand why Dawson followed the order to give a code red. It is clear that Dawson compromised his morals and conceded with the orders given to him because he was afraid of what would happen to him if he didn’t obey. However, why did Louden Downey comply and assist in the “training” of PFC Santiago? It was partially due to the fact that Dawson was his superior officer and instructed him to do so and the other reason was because he idolized Dawson and did not want to disappoint him. Multiple times throughout the film Downey would not respond or act until Dawson did or told him to. Downey abandoned his morals not only because he was ordered to but also because he was afraid of being reprimanded and
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