Obedience and Disobedience

 

 

Roughly 50 to 60 years ago, with beard and ponytail, a few memories come to mind: 1. Armstrong’s “Taking a giant step for mankind” 2. Cuban missile crisis 3. The assassinations of the Kennedys, Dr. King and Malcolm X. 4. Johnson’s Great Society Legislation 5. Riots in Detroit and other cities 6. Michigan’s classic win over Ohio State 7. The Pill 8. Woodstock, Haight –Ashbury Golden Gate Park, marijuana and the drug revolution 9. Mohammed Ali’s conscientious objectors status and his being stripped of his title 10. Pentagon Papers- Daniel Ellsberg and Noam Chomsky 11. Watergate and resignations of Nixon and his VP 12. The killings of Kent State students by the National Guard 13. Vietnam War protest.

 Further, more memories within the last 20 years, without ponytail, include: 1. 9/11 2. The “Mass Destruction” lies and wars in the Middle East 3. Wall Street’s market collapse 4. Barack Obama and his important Affordable Care legislation 5.  The Covid-19 global pandemic 6. Trumps 2 impeachments and his current legal issues 7.  Trumps first Electoral College win and then his Electoral College Capital riot on January 6. 8. Biden’s overwhelming presidential victory and historic relief bill 9. The nationwide peaceful protests over the police murders of George Floyd and other blacks. This essay focuses on moral disobedience against the amoral Vietnam War and the obedience pertaining to the amorality and criminal acts on January 6, the capital riot.

History began with an act of disobedience according to the Hebrew myth of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. They were like fetuses in nature as in the womb of mother earth. They were not quite human at the time but that changed when they disobeyed. They broke the ties with the mother, cut the umbilical cord and emerged from a pre-human harmony. Now, they were able to take the first step toward independence and freedom. The act of disobedience freed Adam and Eve as they opened their eyes. According to the prophets, they were not at all corrupted by sin. Instead, they were able to develop their power of reason, of love and therefore created a new harmony between man and nature. Thus, disobedience is a failure or refusal to obey rules of someone in authority along with having a fully functioning intellectual and moral conscience.

Karl Marx, Albert Einstein and Bertrand Russell are noted for their beliefs in reason, rationality, humanism and alienation. They wrote about the ability to say “no because man can affirm and can disobey precisely because he can obey his conscience and the principles which he has chosen.” Russell was speaking of the revolutionary not the rebel or rebelliousness. In essence, disobedience is the affirmation of reason and will.” It is not primarily an attitude directed against something, but for something: for man’s capacity to see, to say what he sees, and to refuse to say what he does not see. “He does not need to be aggressive or rebellious, he needs to be fully awake and willing to take responsibility to open the eyes of those who are in danger of perishing because they are half asleep. It’s important to be disobedient to the clichés, propaganda and to irrational public opinion.

Within this context, I fondly remember being part of a group of peaceful, protesters walking down Woodward Ave. in Detroit against the amoral Vietnam War. Another memory, as an assistant professor at Oakland Community College, was waiting Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden’s arrival pertaining to the Vietnam War.

The following is a brief description of research pertaining to the 1960’s student activists. There are those that believed that these activists were salvaging a sick society. Further, these activists were intelligent, mature, psychologically resistant and socially effective. Studies suggested that the activists were brighter, more successful academically, more flexible, more individualistic and more autonomous. They were also more imaginative, more tolerant of ambiguity, more reflective in their ability for abstract thinking and less conventional in terms of religious values. They came largely from upper status professional families with the relatively high income and high levels of parental education. These activists didn’t experience social rejection or exploitation.

These activists, according to parenting research, had more permissive and milder parents. The parents were more lenient and less strict with their child rearing practices. These activists shared their father’s liberal values but carried them further. Other studies found that these activists were autonomous, more assertive and valued leadership. They were more sociable and less in need of support and nurturance.

The Chicago 7 were arrested and found guilty, facilitated by Nixon’s Attorney General John Mitchell for antiwar activities, in Chicago, during the 1968 Democratic Presidential Convention. They appealed and they won. In their later years, Tom Hayden became a California State Sen. and married  Jane Fonda; Abbie Hoffman studied with Abraham Maslow, was on the tennis team at Brandeis University; and then completed coursework toward a Master’s degree in psychology at UC Berkeley , Jerry Rubin worked on Wall Street, David Dellinger continued his work as a peace activist,  Rennie Davis became a public speaker on  motivation and self-awareness, John Froines taught at University California, Los Angeles and Lee Weiner remained an activist and  primarily worked on Jewish  causes. The eighth defendant Bobby Seale became a writer, lecturer and continued to work against racism.

Additionally, the country was told that the Vietnam War was about the “Domino Theory.” We had to be there to stop all these neighboring countries from becoming communistic. That was no theory but simply a rationalization regarding our economic interests. As if, murdering them and being killed ourselves, was a recipe to confront the “evils” of communism. Before us, the French were there also. Were they there to stop communism from spreading? Of course not. The war was simply amoral and exploitive. Guess what? Vietnam is our ally today.

Let’s now turn toward those arrested criminals in the amoral riot on the capital of January 6, 2021. Obedience is compliance with an order, request or law and submission to another’s authority. Obedience can be thought of being emotionally in the Stone Age with archaic ideas about politics, the state and society. These individuals obey the underlying passions of fear, hate and greed and submit to the clichés of state sovereignty and national honor etc.. Obedience is directed to person, institution or power along with their inability to reason, with conviction and affirmation. We know that the allegiance to an authoritarian leader is related to the identification and development within conscience. These individuals are eager to please and are simply fearful of displeasing and losing the “love “from that reward producing figure.

Of those arrested, one individual reported that his audio taped comments were simply “locker room talk.” He might’ve borrowed that lie from Trump’s current wife when she rationalized her husband’s negative and inappropriate comments towards women much earlier. Another rioter said that he breached the capital to see “historical art,” another said “he was merely following the directions of then-President Trump,” another that he was “egged on,” and another that “he was duped.”  Clearly, these rioters were not revolutionaries, nor were they patriots. They were not listening to their conscience nor employing rational thought within an amoral conscience. They were amoral criminals and acting out their hate.

Let’s now take a glimpse at early psychological development since we know that it forms a basis or foundation for future behavior. We all start off helpless and insecure dominated by an authoritarian figure or figures. That authoritarian figure might be warm, loving and consistent or might be cold, aloof, punitive and inconsistent. These variables have been thoroughly researched.

Everyone has anxiety, frustration and conflict during the life process. Let’s raise a few questions, regarding the moral, ethical, values of authoritarian parenting:  1. What were their moral, ethical and socioeconomic values? 2. What were their social, economic, religious, educational and geographic backgrounds? 3. What about ideas of right, wrong, good and bad? 4. Do they say “do what I say not do what I do?” 5. What about use of physical punishment? 6. What about verbal punishment? 6. is their character more authoritarian-controlling, dominating and physical or humanistic-warm, nurturing, with positive reinforcement?

Now for a few research findings regarding parenting styles and child development: 1. Authoritarian parents tend to be high in punitiveness, restrictiveness and overprotection 2. Parental use of physical punishment may actually enhance rather than inhibit aggression as they become models of aggression 3. Controlling and dominating the child negatively affects autonomy, confidence, curiosity, mastery and self-reliance 4. Inconsistent discipline and withdrawal of love produces dependency.

More of the effects on children and adolescents regarding authoritarian parenting styles are as follows: 1. Aggressive behavior is related to their social experiences; the reinforcement rewards; observation and imitation of aggressive models; degree of anxiety and guilt; and frustration 2. Children that are highly dependent on the mothers generally exhibit more dependency on others 3. They have a high tendency to conform socially 4. Less clear cut standards of right wrong with their aggressive and a social behaviors 6. More egoism and less concern for others 7. They conform to peer groups with the tendency to be dependent, anxious, loss of ego strength, with repression of impulses and low self-esteem.

Moreover, these children grow up to be adults and have the following impairments cognitively and morally. Limited cognitively, they are unable to successfully develop per Kohlberg and Piaget the Formal Stage of cognitive operations. They are impaired in their ability to reason and to objectively analyze abstract and understand the principle of ”for the benefit of society” and “the Golden rule.” Moreover, they are ethically impaired and limited by their conformity, less curiosity and egoism of their acquired prejudices from their models and identifications. They make statements about democracy and patriotism but have little insight nor understanding of true meaning and underlying negative feelings.  Their words are hollow. It’s not what they say but what they do that’s the determining factor. They have selfish attitudes and hate others as indicated by Make America Great Again which really means that racism is okay for the pandemic to kill the elderly, black and Brown people. They are also rigid and are unable to take an alternative approach in attacking the police and capital. They don’t believe or respect the law, the Blue or democracy. They are racist, prejudiced and hateful.

All in all, the following is related to an irrational obedience stance: 1. The 2020 presidential election was fair and not stolen. Joe Biden won, in a landslide, by over 7 million votes 2. There is systemic racism at all levels and the GOP’s efforts to suppress black and Brown voters is oppression and not democratic at all 3. Conspiracy beliefs are notional and not a theory. They are only irrational, bigoted and racist propaganda ideas 4. The historic 2.9 trillion stimulus is good for most people 5. The Covid-19 pandemic and its variations is a worldwide concern. It’s not a hoax and according to Dr. Fauci the whole world needs to come together to fight this virus 6. Nationalism, egoism, fascism and authoritarianism is associated with exploitation 7. The capital riot was not patriotic but acting out rebelliousness 8. Politicizing getting the vaccine, not wearing a mask, and not social distancing is associated with an attitude toward death. 9. The police murdered George Floyd and other blacks. The police need to be held accountable. 10. Black Lives Matter. 11. Atomic and hydrogen weapons and climate change are risks in the here and now 12. Dr. Fauci having to tell Trump” tell your followers to get vaccinated.”

Disobedience has resulted in furthering a positive humanistic development of world history while obedience can and does exploit economic, social, educational, political and religious discrimination. Systemic racism must be eliminated for this country to prosper and not be dominated by the white power elite of all our systems. We’ve had many world examples and examples in this country of disobedience: 1. The Declaration of Independence 2 Martin Luther King’s March on Selma 3. Burning of draft cards in the 1960s. History is thankful for the gifts of ideas provided by Jesus, Socrates, Descartes, Ptolemy, Galileo, Marx, Newton, Rousseau, Leibniz, Goethe, Spinoza, Freud, Gandhi, Russell, Chomsky etc. Human development is dependent on man’s evolution for wisdom, truth, rationality, love and the Golden Rule and not on lies, hate, prejudice and man exploiting man with authoritarian principles.

It’s clear that we have created a culture of amoral obedience. Our economic system is based on useless consumption, monopolization of capital and profits, nonsensical advertising propaganda and the  alienation of the worker slave; politically we have a monopoly and control of wealth and power by the minority, exploitation of the poor working-class and a very restricted and limited democracy; educationally , a surplus for the privileged wealthy, paucity and ineptness of developing critical powers of rationality, wisdom and abstract thinking; and religiously worshiping idols, myths and being bamboozled by the con individuals that don’t practice with they preach. With week intellectual functioning, increased egoism, being at the mercy of irrational primitive and hateful emotions with amorality along with the irrational purchase of weapons, we can expect continued submission and acting out amoral rebelliousness among citizens. Therefore, is it realistic that man can free himself from the chains that bind him to an authoritarian presence?  If so, it is the peaceful and productive disobedience that is required to combat the sickness from this threat which is strangling the populace. Alternatives are required, but beyond the scope of this disquisition.

Thank you Paul for sending former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara’s admitting that the Vietnam War was wrong.

Reference

Mussen, Conger and Kagan, Child Development and Personality, Harper & Row

Russell, Bertrand, Man’s Peril from the Hydrogen Bomb, National Peace Literature Program