Dalrymple's Essay 'The Perils Of Disobedience'

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In today’s society, obedience to authority is a common factor that is taught at a young age, in which there is a constant lesson to obey the elders and teachers. Disobedience and obedience in lodged deeply within everyone and without recognition, is an automatic response, however there are numerous times where society conforms to a new political standpoint which can turn out to be genocidal effect. Therefore Stanley Milgram, a Yale psychologist, conducted the Milgram Experiment in which he puts volunteered test subjects in an environment where they have the opportunity to obey or disobey authority while causing unnecessary pain to an individual, exemplified in his article, “The Perils of Obedience”. Within his essay, the author reveals that the percentage of people who were willing to …show more content…

Milgram focuses on his clinical tone to portray his view that disobedience should be justified in everyday people otherwise humans will sink into a cowardly, robotic state. On the other hand, Dalrymple is more anecdotal, using his life experiences to explain the dangers of disobedience and that hierarchies are key to keep people in line. Coming together, these two essays are key to witnessing how disobedience is shaping society into everyone being somewhat the same person. Humans are beginning to live the same lives, and be stuck in the same circle, because they are too afraid to defy their authorities and therefore, everyone is stuck in the same rut. People are beginning to lose confidence in themselves, because they stand behind the orders of their superiors constantly, and do not think for themselves anymore. Humans need to learn from Milgram’s experiment to recognize that there is indeed a time and a place to be disobedient, but learn from Dalrymple’s essay, that there is also a time to obey

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