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%OBEDIENCE 780706
Obedience entails conforming behavior to some patt-
ern. Obedience entails submission to an authority, a
willingness to comply with directives. Obedience involves
the acceptance of the propriety of the authority, or at
least resignation to the power of the authority---to the
extent of acting in conformity with the dictates of the
authority.
Usually obedience is thought of in terms of an
authority outside the obedient person. The pattern to
which the obedient person conforms---is outside the
person. The directives originate with others, and the
obedient person conforms to a greater or lesser extent
with those directives. Not all obedience involves
subjective assent; there may be subjective reservations,
resentment, rebellion, planning, etc. The person who
denies the reality of subjective reality---will believe
that objective obedience indicates full conformity with
the relevant authority---that motives for objective
behavior are meaningless apart from objective
manifestations of those motives. Thus, to thoroughgoing
objective analysts it is meaningless to talk about covert
motives for obedience.
Obedience may entail the fulfillment of uniquely
personal patterns. A person may obey instincts which give
guidance to personal development with integrity. A person
may obey guidance which comes in the form of basic desires
to fill personal needs. We may obey the promptings of
love to be open, vulnerable, giving, accepting, and
trustful. We may accept the authority of our own being---
to provide a pattern for the development of our life. We
may respond to our own potentialities, rather than to
patterns imposed upon us by others. We may be responsive
to our subjective insights---rather than to objective
demands on the part of others. We may recognize that
there is little meaning in objective obedience which is
not integral with our subjective knowledge.
Obedience is a major issue with legalists who seek to
provide patterns to control the behavior of large numbers
of people. They promote obedience of outside authorities
so that they may be those authorities. To promote
obedience of subjective promptings is to undermine the
possibility of authoritarian control; and so to undermine
the "benefits" of being preoccupied with issues of
control.
(c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in
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(On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)
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