ONE OF THE MORE MYSTERIOUS and problematic elements of human nature is our tendency to be obedient; to look for external authorities to tell us what to do with our lives. The Latin root of the word is obediere, “to obey, to be submissive.” When soldiers are told to by some purported authority to march off to war, they almost invariably obey. When taxpayers are told to stuff money into […]
Civil disobedience is an act of love | An interview with Tim DeChristopher
On December 19, 2008, in Salt Lake City, Utah, Tim DeChristopher raised paddle #70 at a Bureau of Land Management auction, bidding against oil and gas companies in the leasing of Utah’s public lands—many of them situated adjacent to cherished Canyonlands National Park. Bidding started at $2 an acre and at first DeChristopher raised his paddle simply to keep the public’s heritage from going so cheaply. Then he started winning […]
Erich Fromm | Obedience as a psychological and moral problem
FOR CENTURIES kings, priests, feudal lords, industrial bosses and parents have insisted that obedience is a virtue and that disobedience is a vice. In order to introduce another point of view, let us set against this position the following statement: human history began with an act of disobedience, and it is not unlikely that it will be, terminated by an act of obedience. Human history was ushered in by an […]
Civil disobedience
“Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of the leaders of their government and have gone to war, and millions have been killed because of this obedience. Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem […]
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