Disobedience Essay - 915 Words

Power and Disobedience Power is the root of disobedience. Theodore Dalrymple, a British physician, explains how disobedience can affect how one will act towards authority in the article, â€Å"Just Do What the Pilot Tells You.† Disobedience can be one of the main factors of why people believe they have total power. Although Dalrymple argues that people who are disobedient are looking for attention, he is also arguing that a person with bad authority is actually wanting power or control over the situation. Dalrymple begins his article by doing a summarization of Milgram’s experiment where Milgram demonstrates how ordinary people would do sinister things just because they were to told by an authority figure. Dalrymple uses Milgram’s article†¦show more content†¦The parents were blaming the way their child was acting on the teacher, who serves as the representative authority. Dalrymple is able to this use example from someone he has encountered, which can give a greater impact on his article. With the impact of other someone else’s experience with bad authority and the parents wanting control over the position, he was able to incorporate a way that his article does not just relate to him and his own experiences, but it can also relate to the greater community. Dalrymple gives many excellent ways of why disobedient people are looking for attention. People will change their actions in a split second if they know a greater authority figure is overlooking them in a way that it will effect them poorly in the long term of things. An anecdote he gives in the article is of when a woman who is supposedly against all authority above her, though she listens to all the directions the pilot had just instructed her to do (120). Once again Dalrymple uses actual examples that happen today. Dalrymple uses his own technique to understand why this woman might act this way towards authority. Dalrymple questioned her ways of going against authority, and she told him it was because of the way the authority treated her in her own church (120). This woman is seeking attention just simply because she is against all authority, though she changes her actions when the orders were presented to her in a behavioralShow MoreRelatedEssay on Civil Disobedience1397 Words à ‚  |  6 Pageshistory, human beings have participated in acts of civil disobedience. However, in the last two centuries the belief and practice of it has been in full swing and has even brought on major historical events, especially concerning equal rights and just laws. Three major firm believers and activists in civil disobedience were Henry David Thoreau, Martin Luther King Jr., and Gandhi. All three of these men participated in acts of civil disobedience but each in his own way and for different reasons. 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