Necessary and Dangerous Obedience

Necessary and Dangerous Obedience.

        Obedience is by definition the quality of dutiful compliance with requests or orders in submission with respect to another person. It is also the act of being in conformity with the law or authority. Obedience is necessary for the day to day activities associated with social life. However, obedience might sometimes be unhealthy and dangerous to either of the parties involved. This paper distinguishes between necessary and dangerous obedience and clearly stipulates the causes of fatal compliance and the harm and dangers that it poses to the subjects.

        Necessary obedience is the kind of obedience whose results are positive and moral. Social influence in the form of an order or a request, when complied with and done for the greater good of the community, is considered a healthy way of obedience. And is, for the most part, necessary. Necessary obedience keeps a society running on the right tracks without the objects of conformity stepping on the toes of members of an unsuspecting public or negatively affecting a society’s harmony.

        Necessary obedience is the most common type of obedience, and it runs across through most of the activities that get to be undertaken in a community. Its examples range from petty to complex and sensitive orders or requests. Petty cases of obedience include; An obedient child going to bed when his mother or father tells him to and a student keeping quiet in class following the teacher’s orders among others. Obedience is only obedience when the person being addressed does not put up an argument or objecting and the one issuing the orders has a higher rank than the one taking them. Complicated cases of compliance would include that of a traffic police officer joining in the chase of a suspect in their roadmap after receiving orders for back up from his superiors. It could also be a case of extreme conformity where a soldier is ordered to take out an enemy or immediate threats to the society’s safety. Issuing of warrants of arrest and officers complying with them by bringing in the suspects is also an example of some of the complicated cases of obedience.

        On the other hand, dangerous compliance involves the conformity to orders that end in doing more harm than good. This kind of obedience is mostly considered immoral. Dangerous obedience comes in a couple of forms. One such form is blind obedience; this is a form of dangerous obedience that involves subjects who carry out orders completely oblivious of the harm that they subject other people. People below the authority conform to orders blindly without asking questions or confirmation on the exceptions. People who obey blindly do not review their options, deliberate their choices or the consequences of their decisions. Subjects are not supposed to question the motives behind the orders and cannot argue with the authority on anything regarding the orders. Blind obedience is also practiced when people carry out requests made by individuals they hold highly, for example, relationship crushes or celebrities. People complete these requests regardless of the means provided their esteemed persons are pleased.