Most of our lives are spent pleasing people, whether they are our parents when we are young, our teachers when we go to school, our friends and peers in everyday life, or our bosses when we go to work. We grow up at home being told what to do by our parents and that we have to listen to adults. In school we are told to listen to our teachers and do what they tell us. When we have a job we’re told to listen to our boss and do our jobs the way they tell us. We do what our friends ask us to because it makes them happy and makes us feel as though we belong. Everywhere we go in life we are told to listen to someone else, someone who knows more than we do. This is why the pressures to obey can be so strong despite the lack of morality behind an order, because we are taught throughout our lives to obey others, to please others and in doing so become apart of the different groups within our lives. The main idea that our reasons for obedience revolve around is our want to be part of a group. In Doris Lessing’s “Groups Minds” she states, “The fact is that we live our lives in groups” (Lessing 652). Throughout her article, she speaks of how people, particularly Americans, like to believe they are to be individuals but that humans are really group animals. This lends itself to the idea that, despite believing ourselves to be individuals, we will do anything to be in a group because when we are in a group, we tend to think as a group does (Lessing 652). In essence, because we want to become part of a group, become part of something that is bigger than ourselves alone, we sometimes let go of the things we believe to be right in order to feel accepted. We obey morally or legally wrong orders because if we don’t we may feel rejected and that ... ... middle of paper ... ...s, shaping who we are and who we become. We do things even if we don’t want to because we are told by someone with power over us or from people we want to be friends with. What people need to take from this essay, is that we need to understand when to obey and order, and when to think about what is being asked of us before doing it. Works Cited Asch, Solomon E. "Opinions and Social Pressure." Writing and Reading across the Curriculum. By Laurence Behrens and Leonard J. Rosen. 12th ed. Boston: Pearson, 2013. 655-59. Print. Lessing, Doris. "Group Minds." Writing and Reading across the Curriculum. By Laurence Behrens and Leonard J. Rosen. 12th ed. Boston: Pearson, 2013. 652-54. Print. Milgram, Stanley. "Perils of Obedience." Writing and Reading across the Curriculum. By Laurence Behrens and Leonard J. Rosen. 12th ed. Boston: Pearson, 2013. 630-43. Print.
Milgram, Stanley. “Perils of Obedience.” Writing and Reading for ACP Composition, compiled by Christine R. Farris and Deanna M. Jessup, Pearson, 2013, pp. 77-89. Originally published in Obedience to Authority,
Swales, John. "The Concept of Discourse Community." Wardle, Elizabeth and Doug Downs. Writing about Writing a College Reader. Boston: Bedford/St.Martin's, 2011. 466-480. Print.
Milgram, Stanley. “The Perils of Obedience”. Writing & Reading for ACP Composition. Ed. Thomas E. Leahey and Christine R. Farris. New York: Pearson Custom Publishing, 2009. 212-224. Print.
Obedience may be a simple word, yet it has a powerful impact on the daily lives of millions. Obedience is simply when one follows the orders or directions of another figure, presumably in an authoritative position. This is something nearly everyone bows to everyday without even realizing it - and it can drastically change our lives as we know it. Obedience is, for example, how the holocaust happened. The Germans were ordinary people turned into murderers because they followed the orders of one man - their dictator, Adolf Hitler. Of course, obedience does not always result in horrid results such as the holocaust or result in such a large catastrophe. Obedience can have drastic effects on the lives of only a few men as well; this is showcased in the movie A Few Good Men.
Parker, Ian. “Obedience.” Writing and Reading for ACP Composition. Ed. Thomas E. Leahey and Christine R. Farris. New Jersey: Pearson Custom Publishing, 2009. 230-240. Print.
Milgram, Stanley. “The Perils of Obedience.” Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum. Eds. Laurence Behrens and Leonard J. Rosen. Boston: Longman, 2011. 692-704.
The book Readicide by Kelly Gallagher is the ugly truth of the policies adopted in the school system to prioritized test taking strategies for the most part of the day and killing the enjoyment of students reading. The author points out that students’ reading has shifted negatively and the reading percentage has decreased. Students hate to read and classic novels are slowly vanishing from classrooms. The findings to Gallagher’s discoveries are research based and heartbreaking as the movement of standardized testing has been reinforced in most states. There are too many standards to teach and teachers are held accountable for students testing performance. Therefore, educators are forced to do test preps where students are provided with facts to be memorized and lack of comprehension. The author emphasized that students are no longer able to choose a book for the enjoyment of reading. Students’ interests are no longer taken into consideration. Students are reading less and less at school to make time for test prep. Gallagher says that as an educator and parent young
Fountas, I., C., & Pinnel, G. S., (2009). When readers struggle: Teaching that works. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
The adage of the adage of the Reading good books can get schools in trouble. Urban Educational Journal, 12, 1-10. Salinger, J.D.
Through my research and findings of obedience to authority this ancient dilemma is somewhat confusing but needs understanding. Problem with obedience to authority has raised a question to why people obey or disobey and if there are any right time to obey or not to obey. Through observation of many standpoints on obedience and disobedience to authority, and determined through detailed examination conducted by Milgram “The Perils Of Obedience,” Doris Lessing “Group Minds” and Shirley Jackson “The Lottery”. We have to examine this information in hopes of understanding or at least be able to draw our own theories that can be supported and proven on this subject.
Conformity and Obedience in Society The desire to be accepted and belong to a group is an undeniable human need. But how does this need affect an individual? Social psychologists have conducted numerous experiments and concluded that, through various forms of social influence, groups can change their members’ thoughts, feelings, and behavior. In her essay “Group Minds,” Doris Lessing discusses our paradoxical ability to call ourselves individuals and our inability to realize that groups define and influence us.
Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum. Tenth edition. Edited by Laurence Behrens and Leonard J. Rosen. New York: Longman Publishers, pp. 371-377, 2008.
Perrault, Charles. “Cinderella.” Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum. Ed. Laurence Behrens, Leonard J. Rosen. Toronto: Longman, 2013. 236-240. Print.
To come to understand why people act with deviant behavior, we must comprehend how society brings about the acceptance of basic norms. The “techniques and strategies for preventing deviant human behavior in a society” are called social control (Schaefer, 2009). As we respect and acknowledge these social norms we expect others to do so as well. Therefore, according to our behavior sanctions are carried out whether they are positive or negative. Conformity, which refers to “going along with peers, people of our own status who have no special right to direct our behavior” (Schaefer, 2009), is one way social control occurs in a group level which influence the way we act. On the other hand, obedience is the compliance with a higher authority, resulting in social control at a societal level. The sanctions used to promote these factors can be informal and formal social control. Informal social control can be very casual in enforcing social norms by using body language or other forms of discipline, however formal social control is carried out by authorized agents when desired behavior is not obtained by informal sancti...
The concept of compliancy closely resembles the concept of conformity in the sense that individuals’ behaviors are adapted though the norms of their surrounding group. However, in comparison to obedience, compliancy is less as intense as obedience in which commands are given to an individual to perform behaviors and conform to beliefs by an authority figure. Compliance is more of