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Dichotomy In A Few Good Men

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Waverly Lopez Dr. Kreis DCAC 5th Date of submission A Few Good Men In “Obedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem” by Erich Fromm, brings up the argument that humans will obey authority till then end. He states “ If mankind commits suicide it will be because people will obey those who command them to push the deadly buttons.” Fromm Talks about dichotomy, Antigone (an Athenian story where one character must obey the gods instead of doing what they think is right.) is the example Fromm uses. Antigone shows his claim by obeying the laws of the state they must disobey the former law to obey the latter. Dichotomy, with Fromm's take, is the contrast between heteronomous obedience to authority and authoritarian conscience, the act of not submitting …show more content…

Dawson and Pvt. Downey. Pvt. Downey who is charged for the murder of Pvt. Santiago, another marine. This movie shows Fromm's argument humans follow orders by not submitting but of affirmation, such as whenPvt Downey takes a stand in the courtroom. It is found out that Pvt. Downey and Cpl. Dawson did not hear the order of the code red (a form of extrajudicial punishment carried out within the military without legal approval). an e from Lt. Jonathan Kendrick himself, but from his squad leader Cpl. Dawson. Pvt. Downey did what he was told and feels as if he was not at fault for Pvt. Santiago’s death because he was following the code of the Marines by doing so. This shows that instead of them taking the “latter” he submitted and obeyed in fear of not following the Marine code. He obeyed the Marine order and disobeyed the former, just leaving Pvt. Santiago …show more content…

Dawson and Pvt. Downey both followed the order because they were scared of going against the Marine code. By blindly submitting to authority of the code red you can infer they are both used to follow orders without any say about them. Being that they are all told if they do not obey the orders they will suffer an outcome of killing even more with their actions. Cpl. Dawson and Pvt. Downey both followed a code and saw nothing wrong with their actions because they were doing what they were supposed to do. Fromm statement of mankind committing suicide is not too far off from Cpl. Dawson and Pvt. Downey. They show they will press those deadly butions just to obey the code of the Marine

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