A Few Good Men: Why People Obey Authority

Why People Obey Authority
The movie A Few Good Men was written by Aaron Sorkin. The movie is about a trial concerning two young soldiers, P.F.C. Downey and Lance Cpl. Dawson. These soldiers gave a “code red” to P.F.C. Santiago for breaking the chain of command when asking for a transfer. Lt. Kaffee, their lawyer, tries to prove to the court that they were ordered to give the code red by Col. Jessep. The article “The Perils of Obedience” written by Stanley Milgram. It is about an experiment where subjects were tested to see how far they would go when given orders by authority. The article “Obedience” written by Ian Parker, is about Milgram’s experiment and other variables that played a factor. The article Milgram’s article is about how far
In the movie Dawson and Downey are ordered to give Santiago a code red. In this situation most people would turn down the order to cause pain on someone else but Dawson and Downey do not. They carry out this order and follow orders. What makes things very interesting is the facial expressions that come off of them while they are giving Santiago that code red. There is virtually no expression that comes off of them and Dawson and Downey have a straight face and do not look like they feel bad for this at all. This is backed up when they refuse to take the offer Kaffee gets because they do not feel like they have done anything wrong because they were just following orders. While they did not mean to kill Santiago they excuse it by saying that they were following orders. This is similar to the Milgram experiment where people were shocking other individuals (the actors never received any shocks it was just acting) believing that they were actually causing pain. Most individuals continued on and obeyed the experimenter to shocks upwards of 300+ volts. They did not necessarily want to hurt the man, but they were following orders and that is how they excused it. In this situation the people seemed to express more concern for the person inside, this could be partly due to the different environment in civilian worlds versus military worlds. In both cases people
That theory is along the lines of that is how people are raised so they know no better. They assume that someone is in a position of authority for a reason and they will follow the orders handed down even if they conflict with their own moral views in some cases. It could also have to do with the fact that some people just have a deep hatred and anger in them and want to release it and use the cover of authority to do so. This is clearly visible in the movie A Few Good Men. The soldiers are taught to follow orders so they do not question Col. Jessep when he orders them to give a code red to P.F.C. Santiago. In the Milgram experiment it is possible to see how some people may have a deep aggression down inside as some were very willing to take it to the maximum of 450 volts and even continue after the learner went silent. All of these things come together to try to explain why people will follow the orders of authority so