Stanley Milgram's Essay: The Perils Of Obedience

Obedience to authority is shown in many ways, often times a person obeys another person because he or she is influenced by a stronger power, whether it being wealth, intellect, experience, or a higher position.  In the essay The Perils of Obedience by Stanley Milgram a study is performed where a “teacher” and a “learner” are placed in a room and the “teacher” is told to recite a list of words to the “learner” by the experimenter and the “learner” is required to name the second word back to the “teacher”. If the “learner” does not name the the correct word they are shocked for the “teacher” to witness. If the “learner” continues to name the wrong word they are shocked again, but with the shock level increasing every time. In the second essay,

The Stanford Prison Experiment written by Philip G. Zimbardo a psychological study was carried out about life in a prison. College students were treated like a prison would be treated and guards treated the prisoners like they were supposed to be treated. Last in the movie “A Few Good Men” Lance Cpl. Harold W. Dawson and Pfc. Louden Downey are accused of murdering a fellow Marine, William Santiago at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. In the Marines you are taught to follow all orders by people with superior rankings, but certain orders may not be the most morally right thing to follow. Obedience to authority is not always a good thing I believe because your actions can get you in trouble, even if you are following an order from authority.
    In “A few Good Men” Downey and Dawson are ordered to perform a “code red” which is a type of hazing Marines will use if a fellow marine fails to show satisfactory work such as not keeping their bunk clean or falling behind in runs.

But, Dawson and Downey's code red does not have the outcome they expected. The soldiers they were administering it to, Pfc Santiago started to bleed at the mouth and eventually pass away after the two Marines tied him to a chair and stuffed a rag in his mouth. But, the two Marines were just following an order given to them by a superior officer. Just like in the test in The Perils of Obedience, the “teacher” was just following orders given to them by the experimenter who was in charge of the experiment. Both of these instances are examples of obedience to authority. Dawson, Downey, and the “teacher” did not recognize that the orders given to them were all were absolutely erroneous, they were just being adherent to orders given to them by a superior ranking

person.
    All authoritative power is usually followed but in some instances it is not.

In “The Stanford Prison Experiment” the inmates rebelled on the second day of the experiment and barricaded themselves inside of a cell with their bunks. The guards fought back by shooting a fire extinguisher at the inmates. The guards then proceeded to strip them naked, take their beds away, and place them in solitary confinement. This event connects back to the fact that Dawson and Downey had to control Pfc. Santiago because of his failure to conform to the Marine code “Unit. Corps. God. Country.” The Marine code is a very important motto for all Marines and is expected to be followed by all. But, Pfc. Santiago lacked code according to his superior officers and that is why he was administered the “code red” by Dawson and

Downey.
    Blind obedience is essentially doing something because you are told, and you adhere to the rules because they are the rules. The Perils of Obedience, The Stanford Prison Experiment, and “A Few Good Men” all have instances where blind obedience takes place. In the Perils of Obedience the intent of the “teacher” was never to injure the “learner” but they were instructed to do so, so they followed to instruction no matter what the outcome portended for the innocent “learner”.
Blind obedience factors into The Stanford Prison Experiment when the prisoners start to break down, the simulation was scheduled to last two weeks but was aborted after only six days do to prisoners health and escalations of the guards brutal punishments. The guards did not know what harm they were causing the prisoners, but they had no idea they were doing it because they were just doing what Zimbardo directed them to do.    
The murder trial and dishonorable discharge of Lance Cpl. Harold W. Dawson and Pfc. Louden Downey aspired in distinction to blind obedience caused by devotion to the Marine Corps. The men were so distinctly consumed with following orders and duties that they obeyed an order to carry out code red without taxing their consciences.