Intelligent Disobedience

CHAPTER SIX

The Dynamics of Authority and Obedience

“One must always question the relationship of obedience to a person’s sense of the context in which he is operating.”

STANLEY MILGRAM

WHAT IS GOING ON HERE? Why does there seem to be such prevalence of poor judgment in the face of orders from those in authority? Why is training needed to get people to do what common sense seems to require? Why are people obeying when they are uncomfortable doing so? Surely, you wouldn’t obey in these types of situations!

Or would you?

Unfortunately, there is pretty hard evidence that about two-thirds of us would obey under certain circumstances even when we thought doing so was causing harm to others. This well-researched and documented evidence has been around ...