The Perils Of Obedience Analysis

Private First Class Louden Downey along with Lance Corporal Harold W. Dawson are ordered to deliver a “Code Red,” a hazing which is known to ensure the mistakes of a marine are not repeated, to Private First Class William T. Santiago which eventually led to his death. Dawson and Downey are then arrested for the murder of Santiago and are assigned Lt. Daniel Kaffee to be their attorney. Kaffee is given the task to prove that both Dawson and Downey are innocent based on the sole argument of which the defendants were following a direct order. Erich Fromm, Stanley Milgram, Lee Ross, and Richard E. Nisbett would all agree at some extent that this unquestioning obedience would occur frequently throughout many trials. Fromm, a distinguished German

Ross, a professor of psychology at Stanford University, and Nisbett, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, wrote about the power and subtlety of situational influences on behavior and the need to recognize the subjective nature of situational influence in their article, “The Power of Situations.” Soldiers are trained to obey the orders of superior officers without hesitation or question, which causes them to find it difficult to question the legitimacy of an order or even to question whether it is legal or not, because they are told they must follow all orders, as long as they are legal, even if they believe them to be morally

Jessup. Conforming and complying are different in the sense that conforming is changing a person’s attitudes to match those of a group, and complying is when one adapts his or her actions to another’s wishes. Dawson was also conforming to Kendrick’s order to perform the “Code Red” because Kendrick had the credibility to influence his behavior, and if he did not conform he would lose his credibility in his unit (Constable, Schuler, Klaber, & Rakauskas). Erich Fromm states irrational authority requires force or suggestion to be imposed because no one would submit to be subjugated if they could prevent it (Fromm 126). If what these authors say is true, then Dawson and Downey submitted themselves to an irrational authority by complying with an immoral order because they would be punished if they did not carry out the order. This portrayed in the movie when it is stated that Kendrick slowed Dawson’s progression through the rank system because of his failure to comply with a previous morally questionable order. According to Fromm, if Dawson wanted to disobey, he would possess enough courage to stand alone against a superior officer because he would no longer be conforming with the ideals of his unit, which would cause him to lose his credibility with