Obedience is when an individual follows orders or ideas that have been placed by someone other than himself. Erich Fromm poses the question, “Why is man so prone to obey and why is it so difficult for him to disobey?” (624). Throughout all of human history we have been taught to follow certain rules and societal norms. We rely on others, whether it be a group of people or one individual; we are not accustomed to being alone and cannot stand to be so for a long period of time. We may think that we are individuals but we are all a part of a group and we all give up some of our individual freedom as we conform to our society, to not conform and disobey we must as Fromm says “have the courage to be alone” (624).
Doris Lessing points out in “Group …show more content…
On the contrary when this was done in a normal setting less than 1 per cent of people would answer erroneously. Asch does point out that when the unanimity of the majority is broken, giving the participant support of a truthful partner, the participant is three fourths more likely to give the right answer; instead of following what the majority of the group chooses. Asch addresses how the participants reacted towards the partner, “Most interesting were the reactions to the partner. Generally the feeling towards him was one of warmth and closeness; he was credited with inspiring confidence” (657). The participants were more likely to go against the majority of a group as long as they had someone to support them. Showing how incapable so many people are of making decisions that others could disagree …show more content…
Lessing states that, “[people] may never think of themselves as having a collective mind because they are aware of differences of opinion” (653), but the differences can be very minor when seen from people of a different group, culture, political party, or religion. Fromm addresses the opinions that we may have and believe to be our own, “Obedience to my own reason or conviction is not an act of submission but one of affirmation” (623), we may think that we are obeying our own reason but it may very well not be our own. Instead it has been engraved into us until we believe it too be our
Doris Lessing points out in “Group …show more content…
On the contrary when this was done in a normal setting less than 1 per cent of people would answer erroneously. Asch does point out that when the unanimity of the majority is broken, giving the participant support of a truthful partner, the participant is three fourths more likely to give the right answer; instead of following what the majority of the group chooses. Asch addresses how the participants reacted towards the partner, “Most interesting were the reactions to the partner. Generally the feeling towards him was one of warmth and closeness; he was credited with inspiring confidence” (657). The participants were more likely to go against the majority of a group as long as they had someone to support them. Showing how incapable so many people are of making decisions that others could disagree …show more content…
Lessing states that, “[people] may never think of themselves as having a collective mind because they are aware of differences of opinion” (653), but the differences can be very minor when seen from people of a different group, culture, political party, or religion. Fromm addresses the opinions that we may have and believe to be our own, “Obedience to my own reason or conviction is not an act of submission but one of affirmation” (623), we may think that we are obeying our own reason but it may very well not be our own. Instead it has been engraved into us until we believe it too be our