To what degree does maintaining obedience to authority lead to aggressive or violent behavior? After reading The Lottery and The Stanford Prison Experiment, I believe that I can answer this question, as both passages helped me develop analogies on this subject by comparing their concepts with real life situations. While they are both very different situations and have extremely unique concepts, they have demonstrated similar answers to me. Even though something may not be morally right to someone, a manipulative figurehead or situation can easily force someone to go against his or her beliefs. There are many real life situations involving this subject.
Everyday people are forced to go against their beliefs for one reason or another. For example, someone who performs or writes a certain type of music that he or she loves, and has based his or her career around is offered a record deal. The problem is that record company wants him or her to change their style. If they dont, then they wont get the deal. This is a situation where they are forced to be obedient to authority. In some situations, the artist may have to change their style to a more corrupt or violent style then they are used to. This is just one of many examples and applies to children in situations as well.
If a child misbehaves, his or her authoritative figure usually punishes them by taking certain privileges away. The child may resist his or her punishment at first, but once he or she realizes that they are not getting back their privileges until they behave the way their guardian wants, the child will usually comply with the rules. This is very similar to how some of the mock prisoners behaved in The Stanford Prison Experiment. When their privileges were taken away, they knew that complying by the rules would at least help get some of them back. However, sometimes when a child doesnt get his or her way, they might become upset and have a temper tantrum. The prisoners in The Stanford Prison Experiment acted this way at first. There was a large rebellion the second day by the mock prisoners against the mock guards. When the prisoners realized that behavior like that would only worsen their situation, they started to follow the rules again. (Zimbardo, 2000)
Another situation in which obedience to authority leads to violent behavior can involve a group of teenagers acting in a delinquent manner. One or more of the juveniles may not agree with what he or shes friends are doing, but still continue to partake in the activity. They think that by not participating will cause the rest of the group to reject them. I could compare this situation to parts of The Lottery. Even though the lottery was a tradition, it seemed wrong in some of the peoples eyes. They couldnt really speak out against it though because if they did, they would be ridiculed by the most of the other townsfolk. Even when some of the people mentioned other towns getting rid of their respective lotteries, some of the folks were outraged. (Jackson, 2000)
In war, soldiers are forced to kill whether they like it or not. In Vietnam for example, soldiers had received orders to kill civilians in the hamlet of My Lai. (Behrens & Rosen, p. 311, 2000) While many of the soldiers probably did not like it, they had to follow the orders of their commander. If they didnt, punishments were harsh. This clearly shows how being obedient to authority can lead to violent behavior. In The Lottery it was a tradition to hold the annual lottery of randomly picking an unlucky person to get stones thrown at him or her. Even though it really wasnt right, it was a tradition that people didnt want to question. A tradition can surprisingly hold authority over a group of people, much like a commander can hold authority over soldiers. It is a strange comparison, but when thought about, it makes sense. Money is a main influence in joining the armed forces, and is an influence in other areas of life as well. (Jackson, 2000)
In The Stanford Prison Experiment, it was the money that was to be paid to the participants that intrigued them the most. (Zimbardo, 2000) Back in 1973, $15.00 a day was considered a lot of money. This shows that money can easily affect peoples obedience to authority. People work so they could make money, even if they dont like their job. They are forced to play it by the rules at work, even if their work involves something they do not agree with, because if they dont, they will be most likely be fired. The fear of being fired keeps people from disrespecting the rules of their workplace. However, there are situations in which companies are forced to lay people off no matter how good they are at their job, and no matter how good they are at following the rules. When this happens, people have been known to have violent reactions. This shows how a boss at work can have manipulative influence, much like a religious figurehead.
Osama Bin Laden has convinced many people of Islamic faith that his Al-Quaida terrorist group is doing the right thing by acting in a violent manner mainly towards Americans. This is an example of how people can use religion to get people to do what they want. Another example of people abusing religion is when someone brainwashes a group of others into joining a cult. When someone accomplishes this, he or she usually has complete control and authority of the rest of the groups actions. Sometimes the brainwashed cult members are forced to do violence against others, and in some cases, themselves. This somewhat compares to The Lottery. While the lottery that takes place doesnt exactly involve religion, it involves tradition, and like religion, tradition can also get people to do things that they normally wouldnt do. (Jackson, 2000) Religion and tradition arent really different; in fact religion is basically a type of tradition.
These are just a few situations that show how being obedient to authority can lead to aggressive or violent situations. Everyday people are faced with these types of situations, and although complying with obedience to authority doesnt necessarily lead to aggressive or violent behavior, the passages, The Stanford Prison Experiment and The Lottery clearly show that in many cases, they do.
