Why is it that people give away their power? Do you ever wonder how someone like Hitler could have gotten away with so much? It startles me to see how many soldiers Hitler had behind his back, doing everything he told them, as if they didn’t have a mind of their own. Why do good people sometimes blindly follow authority figures? Every single day, we are told to do things, and most of the time we do them without much thought. Are we like those soldiers, doing as we are told without thinking about it? Does such a blind following lead to giving away power and allow ourselves to be shut into disenfranchisement?
After WWII, many wondered how Hitler could have been so successful throughout most of his plan. How and why did all the soldiers and supporters follow through with his plan if it was so inhumane? Such questions led to inquiry-based experiments. In the 1960’s, Stanley Milgram, a psychologist at Yale University, conducted an experiment to see how authority figures had an impact on people. The experiment required the students to inflict an electrical shock to another student each time he answered a question wrong. During the study, 66% of the students continued following instructions without questioning their actions, although they were inflicting pain on another being. This demonstrated that many people commit actions without thinking or putting other people or possible outcomes into perspective.
Obedience is considered discipline, and discipline is something everyone is expected to have. When you are born, you are taught to follow the rules and listen to your elders. They spend years teaching you how to walk and talk, and the rest of your life you are told to sit down and shut up. You are never supposed to question what your parents tell you to do or else you are considered disrespectful and rebellious. What happens when an authority figure guides you into the wrong path but you are expected to do the same? How are you supposed to break away from something that you grew up with? You can’t just forget the morals you were taught as a kid. There are somethings that are integrated into the way you are, and it’s hard to forget them or to stop following them. So in the sense of obedience, if you are raised to be obedient, it’s most likely that you’ll obey just because it’s expected of you.
Stanley’s experiment helped demonstrate that everyday people are likely to follow certain orders without much thought if given by an authority figure, sometimes to the extent of harming or even killing an innocent person. Even though they knew it was wrong, it was acceptable because they were following orders. Being obedient to people with authority is the way many grow up with, for example with school, work, and mostly family. It is difficult to break a habit, especially if it is one that has been developed for several of years. Following every order you are given blindly isn’t always a bad thing, but sometimes it is. At times, we look the other way, giving those in power the ability to manipulate. If we follow authority blindly, we lose our voice and power, allowing disenfranchisement.
Tied to the Strings
"What we call 'morals' is simply blind obedience to words of command."
-Havelock Ellis
Yesica Flores
Under the Thumb. 2014. By Robert Carter.
Puppets of Advocates. 2013. By Richard Shurnik.
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