Why Do We Obey?

Elba Rodriguez

Professor. Richard Mills

English 1A

5/9/16

“Why Do We Obey”

Mohamed Atta was the hijacker-pilot of the American Airlines Flight 11, which was the plane that crashed into the North tower of New York’s World Trade Center, on September 11th, 2001. Atta’s belongings were later recovered from a previous flight he had taken that day; curiously, in his luggage was found a list of instructions written in Arabic that said: “make an oath to die and renew your intentions", "you should feel complete tranquility, because the time between you and your marriage in heaven is very short". What was going on in Atta’s head? Were there any feelings of regret? How can a catastrophe that left three thousand people dead, could possibly made someone felt any satisfaction? There is to doubt that the 911 attacks are a tangible proof of the human natural will to obey. In fact, every cell in our body is designed to obey a bigger, higher and more powerful cell; our brain. What amazes the most are the motives behind our will to obey. At end, it all comes back to our brain. No matter if it’s against our morals, or if it would cause destruction or damage to the world, obeying is that primitive process that gives us satisfaction, acceptance and meaning to our existence.

When we obey, we are granted with a feeling of satisfaction, as a reward for our good performance. It’s that same feeling of fulfillment and gratification that takes over us when we have achieved the goal that was set for us. In matter of fact, one of the results of Stanley Milgram’s experiment, made in Yale University, was that many of the subjects felt pride in preforming the difficult task that was established for them. Even though the assignment was to give painful electric shocks to a person when it gave an incorrect answer. According to Milgram, “The Subjects do not derive satisfaction from inflicting pain, but they often like the feeling they get from pleasing the experimenter. They are proud of doing a good job, obeying the experimenter under difficult circumstances” (153).  In other words, the feeling of achievement is not directly related to the performance of what people is asked to do; instead, it is related to the fact of people being able to follow the instructions correctly. It is not the act itself of doing something that we were told to do, but the feeling of pleasure that comes with knowing that we where able to follow the orders, no matter how hard they where.

Secondly, one of the most important aspects of human behavior is the need of acceptance; the need of belonging somewhere. In consequence, the majority of the things we do are motived by the necessity of fulfilling this need. As a result, when we surrender to others, we are giving away our individualism, so we can become a part of a group, even though that implies we have to submit to someone else’s directions. As author David Brooks has noted in the article “What Life Asks Of Us”, “Each of these institutions (Family, school, professional institutions) come with certain rules and obligations that tell us how to do what we’re supposed to do” (12). In this matter, when we obey we are doing things exactly as how the others do it, and by doing so, we fulfill the statements: “I’m like them. I do the same they do”. Therefore, we become part of an institution or community because we have one thing in common; we all obey to the same instructions. Additionally, being part of and institution provides us with a solid a sense of protection, which is necessary for our own development.

As well and equally important, since we were kids we’ve been educated and trained to follow orders precisely. In fact, to obey our parents, our school teachers, our country and God’s laws has generally been inserted in our minds as the correct and expected behavior to be observed, since the day we were born. In addition, we are rewarded when we do correctly whatever it’s been told us to do. This reward confirms the importance of obeying, because if we are rewarded that means we are doing things correctly. According to this, Erich Fromm acknowledges that “During most of human history obedience has been identified with virtue and disobedience with sin.” (159). In this matter, Fromm has touched the genesis of human obedience, by establishing that humans obey because it is the right thing to do. On the other hand, it doesn’t matter if what we are asked to do is good or bad, since our morals and integrity are in a second level. Therefore, what it’s most important is that we do as told, because it’s what we are taught to do.