why do we obey?

To whom do we obey? Or are we even obeying a person? We might just be obeying a faceless government. In my course, I would say that we obey because we have been conditioned to obey. Like if we obey we might get rewarded or if we do not obey we get punished. Using reinforcements like these will condition a person to obey. But there is a deeper and way different reason we obey.

The law would say do not steal. For an example, there is this person who wants to have a new gold watch. Stealing it would reward him/her but then the law says do not steal. That person would likely obey the law. This is one reason that we obey. Maybe, in some ways, not the law but a person of authority, but essentially we obey the law. For me, I feel that obedience to the law is the oil of a country. Without people obeying the government’s law, what power does this government have and is it really functioning as it should be? People obeying is the exact function of the government. To find order and equality, the government exists and the people should obey the government to achieve this purpose. The government is also looking after the people’s backs, to keep them on line and prevent harm to them. It is then logical to obey to the government because it is for everyone’s good. So is obeying the government all it is to it in obeying?

In my opinion, we cannot just obey the government. We should also think about what we are obeying. But in reality, this is hard since the government has the authority to apprehend you for not obeying. But what if the government was really wrong. Can they force you to obey? Sadly, there is a way to force people to obey. An example of which is former President Marcos’ martial law. He forced everyone to follow his dictations. But then again, are people really obeying in the sense of true obedience? What is obedience then? In the dictionary definition of obedience, it is a dutiful submissive behaviour. But were we submissive in that martial law? I think not. We were, at least people then, were not submissive to this law since they eventually revolted. Although there were people who were submissive to it, there were more people who fought against it. So what does this say about obedience? Maybe this might add that we obey because we believe that what we are obeying at is true and is right. But this would make obedience subjective and how will a government govern if people subjectively obeys the law? So maybe there is a way to obey objectively or maybe not. In the Christian perspective of obedience, Christians obey because of their love for God. That if they love God, they would obey His commandments. As I thought about this, I realized that this is actually not a bad idea. If we love our country, we will obey and do according to what will benefit it best. This actually changed my perspective in obedience. At first I thought of obedience in terms of an authority versus the obeying party, where as here, they go together and have a common not opposite paths. Maybe this is the way of obedience, not saying that everyone should do what I say and obey God, but get this way of obeying and applying it.

What is then the role of obedience in globalization. For me, globalization actually makes obedience harder, because people now in this globalized world would feel puny and would think that they are not that big of a part in this world that why should they obey? neither do they think more so love the world that they would sacrifice personal wants to do anything for the world. This kind of makes it seem that globalization is not that good at all, obedience wise, but then again, with globalization, the authority can be more effective in implementing the laws so that people are more afraid of not obeying, but to put it in a more positive light, through globalization, the temptation of not obeying is reduced so that people can trust and obey better.