Who Walked Away From Omelas Analysis

When we talk about someone being in a position of authority we usually mean that they hold a certain rank or status within society or within an organisation such as the public services. There are several ways in which a person could find himself or herself in a position of authority. For example, a priest has the authority of the church while a mother or father has parental authority over children. In the uniformed public services, positions of authority come with promotion. An officer may be promoted because of certain achievements and special attributes, such as experience in the service, good character, knowledge of the job, dedication, self-discipline and the respect of one’s colleagues. If you join the uniformed public services and are placed in a position of authority, you may lawfully command team members, who recognise your authority and their duty to obey those legitimate commands. When authority is legitimate, there is no need to influence or use power. Indeed, if a senior officer were unable to gain the respect of a team member by command alone, then there would be no recognisable authority.

In Stanley Milgram’s ‘The Perils of Obedience’, Milgram reports from his studies of how far an individual can go in obedience to instructions and he pointed out that individuals can go as far as causing serious harm to the other people. Basically, the experiments are meant to test the choice that an individual would make when faced with the conflict of choosing between obedience to authority and obedience to one’s conscience. From the tests, it was found out that a number of people would go against their own conscience of choosing between what is wrong and what is right so as to please the individual in authority (Milgram 317). However, the experiments conducted by Milgram caused a wide range of controversy for instance; according to Diana Baumrind, the experiments were immoral. Baumrind notes in ‘Review of Stanley Milgram’s Experiments on Obedience’ that Milgram did not only entrap his subjects, but he also potentially caused harm to his subjects (Baumrind 329). Based on the arguments that have been presented by the two authors, it is apparent that the two authors are concerned with real life situations, authority and ethics but the difference is that they both view these perspectives from different points of view as indicated by their writings. By and large, they also tend to show the importance or the insignificance of the experiments.

In the story “The ones who walked away from Omelas” by Ursula K. Le Guin. Le Guin provides a notion that the cycle of inequality within a society is intergenerational. At young ages, the children in the town are conditioned to accept inequalities within their society. Although the children disagreed with the treatment of the child locked in the basement, they later assimilated with these harsh realities. Paving the way for brutality and systemic oppression. With the full understanding that their privilege solely exists through someone else suffering.

The two studies being analyzed today are the Stanly Milgram experiment and the Slater experiment. The two similar experiments yielded information about obedience to authority that explains the correlation in society between authority, obedience, and morality. Despite the major ethical problems in the Milgram experiment, it is known in social psychology today that human beings will follow orders from authority figures even to the extent of inflicting harm on another. However, even with this fact, it is also known that there is limits to such obedience.

It is safe to say that most people in the world want one thing, happiness. Many men, women, and children will go through great lengths to find this cherished feeling, but how far is too far? In the fictional short stories "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson and "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" by Ursula K. Le Guin both have a different belief on what way to obtain happiness for their communities, but are in the similar lines of the need to harm one individual for the contentment of the others. In "The Lottery" the community joins together for their annual gamble of life where, families each go pull a ticket out of the black box to then discover who will be the one stoned to death for the good of everyone's crops. In "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" although they cherish life dearly they hide a unperfect child locked away in the dark, underneath the beautiful Omelas buildings in a basement. Its sole purpose is to be hungry, dirty, and miserable for if this child were to ever feel happiness, the people of Omelas would not. Although the two stories use different methods to acquire their happiness they both believe with the harming of others they obtain their happiness.

Stanley Milgram is a famous psychologist who focused his studies on authority and peoples reaction and obedience to it. His famous experiment and it's results were groundbreaking in psychology, surprising both psychologists and regular people alike. First I will discuss the reason for Milgrims study of obedience to authority. Then I will explain the experiment, its formulation, and its results. Finally I will cover the influence of the experiment on psychology and society.

In many situations, there have been authority figures with mass followings. Often the power the leader holds over their followers can influence them to do negative things. Many people believe that they can be independent enough to resist any pressure put on them by an authoritative figure. If this was true, then why do genocides mark the pages of history books around the world? Stanley Milgram sought to answer this budding question. He used his scientific authority to conduct an experiment which would reveal that most people would succumb to authority and obey their commands. This contradicts what most people would like to believe about themselves and their morals. Many people believe that they would never harm another human being, even under pressure from an authoritative figure, the Stanley Milgram Experiment proves that this is false. Although the experiment left its participants psychologically harmed, the results discovered why genocides continue to happen. Most people collapse under the pressure and obey any command given to them rather than doing what they believe is right.

Authority cannot exist without obedience. Society is built on this small, but important concept. Without authority and its required obedience, there would only be anarchy and chaos. But how much is too much, or too little? There is a fine line between following blindly and irrational refusal to obey those in a meaningful position of authority. Obedience to authority is a real and powerful force that should be understood and respected in order to handle each situation in the best possible manner.

stressed and he hesitates about fulfilling the experimenter's orders. Desperation and the manifest suffering of the accomplice force the subject to stop the experiment; however, the legitimate authority orders him to continue. In this experiment, Milgram aims to investigate when people refuse to obey and defy authority in an explicitly contradictive situation.

Authority means the power or right to give orders, make decisions and enforce obedience. Teachers, parents, and adult figures have authority over others. It has been around for years and everyone has some kind of authority whether it be over a pet, or over people. In the 1500s Queen Elizabeth the first had authority over England. Police officers have authority over the people today. In the Marines Sergeant Major has authority over everyone. In the film “A Few Good Men” Lieutenant Kendrick has authority over PFC Downey and Lance Corporal Dawson; in the film Kendrick orders Dawson and Downey to compose a Code Red on Private Santiago, thus killing Santiago. Why Does Dawson and Downey proceed with the Code Red? Is it because both men were ordered to do so by higher authority, or did they not like Santiago?

Authority represents the power that lies within a managerial position and that gives the manager the right to assign the jobs to his subordinates and to expect that the assigned jobs would be completed by the subordinates. By the virtue of authority, the superiors are empowered to make their juniors and subordinates work. The organizational structure should clearly define the line of authority so that the overlapping actions might be avoided (Mahida).

The series of experiments that Stanley Milgram performed illustrates people’s reluctance to confront those who hold power, even if the action is immoral, for the sake of being obedient. Milgram researches the effect of obedience to authority to see what the teachers’ moral breaking point is. Milgram explains, “loyalty, duty, discipline, all are terms heavily saturated with moral meaning and refer to the free to which a person fulfils his obligations to authority” (Milgram 146). In other words, the teachers

The authority of an agent is the act which he is allowed or authorised to do by his principal, and which will bind his/her principal. Usually, the principal will only be bound by the act of the agent if the agent acts within his/her authority. There are two types of authority which an agent could rely on, namely actual authority and apparent or ostensible authority.

Whether one acknowledges it or not we all obey authority in one way or another. It is something that is embedded into us from the day that we are born. We begin to become obedient to our parents, elders, our teachers, law enforcement, the list goes and on. Authority has a major impact on human behavior. This is especially evident in the case of the concentration camps in Germany. There were hundreds if not thousands of people following Hitlers unethical orders, and clearly they outnumbered the one person controlling it all. However, they did not go against him but they simply followed his orders. For a person to obey authority, one has to accept that it is legal, and right for the order to be made of them. It also involves somebody of a higher power or status to be involved in making the commands.

Rational legal authority is the authority is the authority leaders attain on the basis of various rules which have been legally established. This type of authority can be identified in the modern society. Obedience is not given to any leader or tradition, but to legally passed laws. Examples of this form of authority can be found in the modern state as well, city governments, private and public corporations, Indian judiciary,