From the Americans in the My Lai massacre to the Nazis in the Holocaust, soldiers have followed orders no matter how immoral. Obedience to authority is necessary for the stability and protection of people. While obedience is necessary in society, it is absolutely essential in the military. The United States military is based on the principle that lives will be lost if soldiers choose which orders to obey or which to ignore. Although obedience is required, it comes with great responsibility for those in charge. Obedience to a flawed authority has led to the deaths of many who are innocent. How can one explain this phenomenon of reasonable people sacrificing their self-judgment to obey an immoral demand? There are some experiments and the film
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They do not identify themselves as logisticians, pilots, or infantry officers. They identify themselves as Marines–with a duty to abide by the code. Creating this single, shared identity prepares Dawson and Downey to have a tough mindset in dangerous situations, but it also turns them into agents of terror under the wrong commander when they obey the order to issue a “Code Red”. A real life experiment that shows how ordinary people can become agents of terror in obedience is the Stanford Prison Experiment conducted by a professor of psychology at Stanford University, Philip Zimbardo. In this experiment, ordinary male college students were randomly assigned as guards or prisoners for six days. Even though the prisoners committed no authentic crimes, the guards punished them as if they had. The guards humiliated and dehumanized the prisoners by stripping them naked, making them use plastic buckets as toilets, and referring to them solely by numbers. Identities of both the guard and the prisoner were fully accepted in the same way Dawson and Downey accepted their identity as Marines. Another example where identity was lost in obedience is shown through an experiment conducted by Yale psychologist, Stanley Milgram. In “The Perils of Obedience”, Milgram reveals shocking evidence of how much pain ordinary people will inflict on another person to obey an experimenter. Very few of …show more content…
In the mass perspective, murder is regarded as an immoral, punishable act. However, Dawson and Downey sacrificed their self-judgment to believe that the murder of Santiago was moral because they had done their job in adhering to the Marine code through obedience. One can even go as far to say the two marines relinquished their self-judgment because they were brainwashed into obedience. Dawson and Downey appear to be brainwashed during the first questioning scene in the brig with Kaffee and Galloway. The Marines never maintained eye contact unless they were spoken to, never spoke unless they were asked direct questions, and continued to say “sir, yes sir” even after Kaffee said they do not have to address him as sir. Furthermore, because they only spoke when asked direct questions, they withheld important details that could help in their defense. One crucial detail that Dawson withheld from Kaffee was the fact that Kendrick had ordered Dawson to give Santiago the “Code Red”. When Kaffee inquires, “You mind telling me why the hell you never mentioned this before?” Dawson answers in monotone, “You didn’t ask us, sir”(Reiner, 1992). This demonstrates an ample lack of self-judgment from Dawson, as any ordinary person would want to share every detail that could prevent them from spending their life in prison. Even more astounding behavior in this scene is that Dawson
They do not identify themselves as logisticians, pilots, or infantry officers. They identify themselves as Marines–with a duty to abide by the code. Creating this single, shared identity prepares Dawson and Downey to have a tough mindset in dangerous situations, but it also turns them into agents of terror under the wrong commander when they obey the order to issue a “Code Red”. A real life experiment that shows how ordinary people can become agents of terror in obedience is the Stanford Prison Experiment conducted by a professor of psychology at Stanford University, Philip Zimbardo. In this experiment, ordinary male college students were randomly assigned as guards or prisoners for six days. Even though the prisoners committed no authentic crimes, the guards punished them as if they had. The guards humiliated and dehumanized the prisoners by stripping them naked, making them use plastic buckets as toilets, and referring to them solely by numbers. Identities of both the guard and the prisoner were fully accepted in the same way Dawson and Downey accepted their identity as Marines. Another example where identity was lost in obedience is shown through an experiment conducted by Yale psychologist, Stanley Milgram. In “The Perils of Obedience”, Milgram reveals shocking evidence of how much pain ordinary people will inflict on another person to obey an experimenter. Very few of …show more content…
In the mass perspective, murder is regarded as an immoral, punishable act. However, Dawson and Downey sacrificed their self-judgment to believe that the murder of Santiago was moral because they had done their job in adhering to the Marine code through obedience. One can even go as far to say the two marines relinquished their self-judgment because they were brainwashed into obedience. Dawson and Downey appear to be brainwashed during the first questioning scene in the brig with Kaffee and Galloway. The Marines never maintained eye contact unless they were spoken to, never spoke unless they were asked direct questions, and continued to say “sir, yes sir” even after Kaffee said they do not have to address him as sir. Furthermore, because they only spoke when asked direct questions, they withheld important details that could help in their defense. One crucial detail that Dawson withheld from Kaffee was the fact that Kendrick had ordered Dawson to give Santiago the “Code Red”. When Kaffee inquires, “You mind telling me why the hell you never mentioned this before?” Dawson answers in monotone, “You didn’t ask us, sir”(Reiner, 1992). This demonstrates an ample lack of self-judgment from Dawson, as any ordinary person would want to share every detail that could prevent them from spending their life in prison. Even more astounding behavior in this scene is that Dawson