Disobedience
Evaluate the statement below using evidence from the texts we have studied this year.
“Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man's original virtue. It is through disobedience and rebellion that progress has been made.” - Oscar Wilde, 1854-190
posted by Mr. F @ 7:20 AM
11 comments
11 Comments:
Well I think that disobedience is key to human success in society. I think that the quote by Oscar Wilde really captures what disobedience is in human nature. In the quote he states that disobedience is our original virtue. It could be that or it could be our first fault. But disobedience in Lord of the Flies was society is lost turns out to be a bad thing. Jack splits off of Ralph’s group he is being quite disobedient and people die because of that. But in society disobedience gets people places. Take The Little Rock Nine or the Monks in Myanmar. Those groups were and are being disobedient and getting somewhere in their lives. Some evidence of the disobedience would be in Gathering Blue Kira and Thomas disobeys the guardians and sneak out to help Jo. That is a sign that disobedience against something oppressive against you our your society can be some of the most powerful actions in the world.
Disobedience is man’s original virtue. In Genesis, Adam and Eve directly disobey God’s order to not eat from the Tree of Knowledge. Eve, tempted by the serpent, eats the fruit from the tree thus breaking God’s command. Furthermore, Adam eats the fruit given to him by Eve. Now both man and woman have the knowledge of good and evil. God banished Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden for disobeying him. Thus, man’s original virtue is disobedience because man disobeyed God’s command.
Without disobedience and rebellion, there is no progress. In Gathering Blue, Kira and Matt disobey many of the Council’s rules. Matt runs off into the woods only to find the truth behind the Council. Kira and Thomas are disobeying the Council’s wishes when they visit Jo to comfort her. Without these acts of disobedience, Kira would never be able to learn of the horrifying truth behind the Council; that she, Thomas, and Jo are basically prisoners and being used to make a future under the directions of the Council. Without Matt’s act of disobedience, Kira would never have been reunited with her father. She wouldn’t have the chance to go off and help her father and other runaways live their life. In conclusion, disobedience is man’s original virtue and, through disobedience and rebellion, progress can be made.
Disobedience is the driving force behind many accomplishments. In Genesis, Adam and Eve disobeyed God to eat from the Tree of Knowledge. Before then, they didn’t even know they were naked, much less did they know anything about good and evil. Disobedience kept them from being sheltered and stupid for the rest of their lives.
In Stanley Milgram’s article, The Perils of Obedience, more than half of the subjects of their experiement obeyed orders all the way through, though they caused their victims pain. This somewhat disturbing example proves that obedience can have disastrous results.
Finally, in the movie V For Vendetta, the entire country is controlled by a fascist dictator. V, a rebellious anarchist, disobeys his government to cause great destruction and chaos. But this destruction removes the fascist form of government, leaving room for a possible new society to emerge instead. Disobedience leads to many accomplishments.
Obedience has really affected the outcome of man today because when you have people who disagree with something that causes change and change is a necessity for man to live. If man were one way for all of it’s time leading up to now, that would drive people insane. There would be some people who agree, but those who do not will rebel and cause change for the cycle to start over again. For example in Gathering Blue Kira, Thomas, and Jo are not happy with the way that the Council of Elders are running things so they disobey and rebel against the way of life that is so there can be change.
When change is due for a way of life it is easy to tell because of all the disobedience that goes on against the current way of life. For example in Article What Makes Us Different? The chimps who refused to pull the chain to get food because they didn’t like the conditions that were set to get food so they disobeyed and rebelled so that things might change for them, making it less painful for them to get food.
Another example would be the fourth, fifth, and sixth movies of Star Wars. This is because of the Empires crude ways and how they want to take over the galaxy and destroy many planets. In the movies the Rebels do not agree with this because their homes or their friends homes are being destroyed so they disobey and rebel against the Empire in hopes of the thought of life in peace and harmony without being pursued by the evil empire because of that.
Disobedience is important. It has helped form our country, over through dictators and get rid of unfair laws. Without disobedience our country would still belong to England. Americans rebelled against unfair laws the English government forced on us and became an independent country. Because of this the US have become one of the most powerful and inflectional countries in the world. Also, US citizens’ disobedience to the law has gotten ride of unfair laws including Jim Crow Laws.
Also, it is with disobedience that we are able to right wrongs and be independent. In the article the Perils of Obedience, the author talks about an experiment at Yale University. Humans are told to shock people if they answer a question incorrectly. As the person keeps getting shocked the shocks become more painful. Most of the people kept shocking the other person when the authority figure said to even when the person being shocked would yell out in pain. If this had happened in real life we would hope that the person would rebel and stop shocking the person because they thought for themselves instead of listening to someone else.
In the article What Americans Have Learnt- And not Learnt- Since 9/11 the author says that many Americans including President Bush believe the Iraq people hate us because of our freedom. If Americans believe this instead of rebelling and thinking for themselves the US may never get to the root of the problem. Disobedience and rebellion are important because stop the government and authority from doing something injustice.
Oscar Wilde is stating that humans have a natural instinct to be disobedient, although from this, we have made progress and gains. In other words, “No pain no gain” and along with the bad comes the good. Personally I agree with this proposal and I have compiled several pieces of evidence to support that this idea is legitimate.
First of all, in the Greek Creation Myth there are husband and wife Epimetheus and Pandora. Zeus punishes them and one of the reprimands to mankind is a box. The box is full of horrors- sickness, greed, and pain. Pandora goes on every day with an intense longing to open the box, not knowing what lies inside. So one day, when she believes that no one is watching, she decides to open it up, and then, all of the evils that infect our world today are released. Quickly the box is shut, but again soon reopened when Pandora and Epimetheus take note that there, beneath all of the bad lies something good: hope.
This Greek Creation Myth supports Wilde’s proposition that we disobey, but we learn and gain from that. In the short writing, Pandora disobeys Zeus’s order to never open the box. Even though she does and releases many horrors into the world today, in addition there is hope. Hope is one of the greatest values of mankind because it beholds the power to rid the people of any trace of sickness, greed, pain, and envy. All in all, although the Goddess was disobedient, progress was made, therefore supporting the quote by Wilde.
Secondly, another example from a text supporting the idea that we make progress from being disobedient is in the novel Lord of the Flies, by William Golding. At the end of this book, Jack has now reached the point of complete disobedience of the chosen leader, Ralph. Jack has made his own tribe, become violent, and disregarded everything that Ralph had ordered as the leader of the group. In the final pages, Jack has set the entire island on fire and has gone completely out of control with the crave to kill Ralph. Strangely enough, Jack’s insane fire actually helps the boys out in a major way. They actually become rescued by a naval officer who sees the fire.
This point in the story is a fine instance of a time when disobedience leads to gain. Jack becomes utterly disobedient of Ralph by completely disregarding his orders, but from that, the most important goal of the boys on the island is obtained, they become rescued. Disobedience can lead to gain. If Jack obeyed Ralph’s orders, there never would have been a massive fire. Most likely, there would have been a smaller fire, but the only reason that they were rescued in the end was because of the outrageous fire that was too bold to miss. In conclusion, it is actually a mighty good thing that Jack was rebellious towards Ralph, because in the end, that is what had them rescued. Again, this supports the suggestion that disobedience and progress come hand in hand.
Last but not least, the attacks on 9/11 again support the idea that we can profit from disobedient people. On this day, terrorists were disobedient to the US and its people. They went against our morals, and our laws. Although, from this, we have learned so much more and have actually become stronger as a whole. We have taken the time to learn why this happened to us and what made a group of people so hateful that they would be enticed and happy if nearly 3,000 Americans were killed. Also, we have learned that we need to make airport security stronger and stricter. From these attacks that disobeyed many of the things that Americans felt strongly about, we have grown more strong and less ignorant, therefore making improvement in our country.
Disobedience has been man’s original virtue for it shaped what we know and challenge to this day. It has caused problems in our society, but it has more importantly shaped our society. The first example of this could be considered when Adam and Eve, in Genesis, disobeyed God’s orders and ate the fruit of the knowledge tree. They were kicked out of the garden, and they were punished with what we know today as some of the basic problems in human life. Adam and Eve hoped to be like God, they hoped and wanted to know of “good and evil”(Genesis 3, first paragraph). Without their disobedience life wouldn’t be the same.
Another example of this was when Prometheus in the Greek Creation Myth disobeyed the orders of Zeus and gave humans fire. From this story, it shows that without the disobedient Gods, whom we are supposedly based upon, we wouldn’t have had fire, which through much of history was a large factor in our survival. To add upon to this, disobedience also continues in this story with Pandora, who was ordered not to open a box, but she disobeyed because she had such a large amount of curiosity about the box. This opening of the box was another story explaining all of the basic problems that humans have. This box also brought with it hope, and hope is a human trait that can be considered disobedient due to the fact that sometimes when a person hopes something is different or will be different from what it is, they could be hoping against an order of some kind. Disobedience is sometimes brought about by hope.
An example of disobedience in history is the American Revolution. The American Colonies disobeyed the British Empire by gaining their freedom from the British Empire. The first step of this was not paying tee taxes and it grew into something very large. Much of the world today has been affected by the outcome of that war over the independence of the United States. The United States has become a leader in the world. Without that disobedience and standing up for what’s right back in the late 18th century, the world as we know it wouldn’t be the same without rebellion and disobedience.
Another example of people fighting for freedom by disobeying is shown in “What Americans Have Learnt- And Not Learnt- Since 9/11” by Noam Chomsky. The article says, “What they hate is official policies that deny them the freedoms to which they, too, aspire”. This article explains why terrorism has come about, and this perspective tells that Arabs want freedom and the same as everyone else, and they disobey to get that freedom by hurting America, which has been hurting them.
Many things cause disobedience, and it plays a key role in human life since the beginning. What our world is today has been shaped by disobedience. Disobedience is driven by wants, needs, hope, curiosity and so much more. Without it, we wouldn’t be who or what we are.
Abbie H.
10/4/07
2 Blue
Blog
Disobedience:
I agree that some of the progress in history has come from disobedience.
In the Greek Myth of Prometheus, retold by W.T Jewkes, Prometheus, the Titan, makes his cousin Zeus, the father of the Gods, angry when he disobeyed his orders. It all began when Prometheus decided he wanted to give man fire. He went to Zeus to ask permission, but did not get a clear answer. Zeus wasn’t against it, but Prometheus made the situation worse when he played a trick on him. Zeus wasn’t very happy afterward and punished Prometheus by forbidding him to give man fire. Prometheus, being a very persistent god, went behind Zeus’ back and did anyway.
Because of this action of disobedience man obtained fire, which was key in becoming the society we are today.
In the Greek Myth of Pandora, retold by W.T Jewkes, Zeus is angry with Prometheus for what he did in the story above. Since Prometheus gave man something Zeus didn’t want them to have, he decided he would make both man and Prometheus pay. He ordered Prometheus to be chained to a mountain where a vulture would peck out his liver. Zeus punished man with in a more crafty way. He had a blacksmith create a beautiful woman named Pandora, to which Epimetheus (Prometheus’ brother) would fall in love with and marry. The underhanded part of this whole ordeal was how Zeus created a special box full of all the bad things in the world, such as Sickness, Hunger etc. and gave it to Pandora and Epimetheus as a wedding present. Zeus and the blacksmith secretly programmed Pandora’s brain with the unavoidable longing to open the box and unleash these terrible things on mankind. Epimetheus was a little suspicious about this box, because Prometheus had told him that any gift from Zeus was trouble. Epimetheus believed him and told Pandora to never open the box, but Pandora’s desire was too strong. This plan was so crafty that no one saw it coming. And of course, Pandora opened the box and let all of those terrible things out. Zeus’ plan had appeared to work, except that one little thing happened that he didn’t predict. Somehow, hope had gotten into the box with all of the terrible things, and when Pandora realized it, she unleashed hope on mankind, to help them overcome all of the other spites in the world.
To this day hope is still an important part of everyday life, and without Pandora disobeying Epimetheus and unleashing it from the box, progress up until this point probably wouldn’t have happened.
I read the blogger Kr’s response to the statement and agreed on the points but some of the comments this person said were not the most clear and supportive points they could have made. I thought these examples were correct, I just thought this person could have proved this statement more accurately if they used an example in the text of Genesis. The examples from the Genesis show many more connections about disobedience and just made the statement appear more correct. They could have used the example of when Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s order to not eat from the Tree of Knowledge and that resulted in God banishing Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. That example to me proves that the statement, by Oscar Wilde, about how disobedience is a man’s virtue is accurate from this text. Overall I think this response was accurate I just think that if they used an example from the Genesis it would make it even more convincing.
Responding to SamK’s position, I have to say I take a different approach to this quote and actually disagree with it. Although disobedience can be useful at times, I see it as mostly a negative thing. Working together is much more crucial than disobeying others. For example, in Lord of the Flies if Jack had not disobeyed Ralph, all would have gone more smoothly. You can see disobedience as a ripple. If one is looking at Lord of the Flies, they will see Jack’s disobedience as a drop. As others see Jack disobeying, they begin to join him, and the drop of disturbance turn into a ripple and begins to make trouble. I see that disobedience could be a positive at times, but as a rule, obedience is better unless one is attempting to overtake a leader that is very corrupt.
In response to ellehcims comment I would have to say I disagree I still that disobedience is still does more well than bad. They do have a good point with Lord of the Flies that disobedience in the face of a not so strong leader is bad because everything falls apart but if the disobedient person just happens to be a great leader then your in luck. Elicit says that disobedience is a ripple it is. I agree with that statement fully and completely. But that’s why disobedience is so effective; it’s the ripple affect that causes change in people, governments, and lives. Martian Luther King and the civil rights movment, that disobedience of marches and protests got things done.
Disobedience is the driving force behind most change in the world. I think.
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