Authority, Obedience, and Integrity - Ernest Dempsey

It’s been a year and a half since my disobedient temperament became manifest upon the ‘authorities’ at my employer institute – the National Center of Excellence in Geology (NCEG), University of Peshawar. Every now and then I get some irrational order from my boss and, in response, I write a critical answer to it. The reply vanishes and the concerned people assume silence. Certainly, they are doing their homework on deposing me while saving their ‘faces’ (no reason to use the more vulgar equivalent here) at the same time. Whether or not they succeed is not very easy to predict but one thing that I learnt from my encounters during this conflict is ‘NO to servile obedience!’

The word ‘disobedience’ is itself a treachery seen in many languages; in those I am familiar with, it is always made to sound like a negative act or quality. Disobedient children, disobedient students, disobedient workers – all are used in a way that makes them sound guilty of an offensive act. Of course, language is society’s faithful slave, serving a vital function to the society (as against the individual) that uses it. Obedience is the name of going tame before societal expectations and social pressure, losing your individual voice and personal integrity (provided you have managed to drag these on in your adult life). You say ‘no’ to someone who wants to cash your trust in social currency and you become a criminal in their eyes.

Authoritative systems work mainly by coercion. In early times, the fear of pain would coerce people to obey the one with the sword. Today, the fear of losing your job (and hence bread) works to impel you for obeying the one who manages your personal file (employee’s record). Now you may wonder whether obedience really is such a bad thing. I admit it is not in many cases. But that is only when you are sure, both formally and inwardly, that the affair in question is fair without any objectionable point that compromises your self-respect (you must have some, I mean to say). As it happens, in a great many number of cases, we clearly see the wrong side of authority and are left with two choices: (1) remain silent and complaint, (2) speak up against the wrong. The former is the more convenient choice for a large number of people since it brings social rewards (and material pleasures as well). But it is only the latter choice of questioning the abuse of authority that saves our integrity. Whether social reward or individual integrity is important to you is your choice – your INDIVIDUAL choice.

One thing I must not miss telling here is about the nature of the slippery process of accepting/resisting authoritative abuse. It all works by a reinforcing mechanism, i.e. you nod to coercion once and it becomes harder to shake your head the next time, even when more is being robbed of you (which usually is the case). On the contrary, once you give the coercive attempt a damn, you are very likely to save more next time when a similar, or even greater, threat comes to scare you. This is why my seniors did not think of pressing on me to mark my presence at the office while excluding themselves of this regulation (an act of discrimination in workplace), though my colleagues, serving in the same position as me, were coerced into following the self-made rule each time they straggled from it.

Now, my bragging about my disobedient antics may sound foolhardy to some of you. But I strongly feel it as my duty, as a responsible human individual, to discourage authority of any kind from coercing individuals into wrongful obedience. I have started enjoying being ‘disobedient’ and the word does not sound negative to me anymore. My watchword? It’s ‘NO’! Try it and you’ll love it. After all, it is shorter than ‘YES’ and will save you a tiny bit of energy.


Ernest Dempsey