Obedience to Authority
By Mowahid Hussain Shah

Within parameters, obedience to authority assures and ensures orderly behavior. But, carried to excess, it can lead to submissiveness in face of wrongdoing, and compliance with unlawful demands of superiors.
Obedience was part of German culture. It brought to Germany both progress and success. But its abuse also led to the rise of Nazism and the WWII destruction of Germany. Similarly, in Imperial Japan, it gave rise to blind militarism and Japanese imperialism in Asia, which led to its occupation of Indonesia. The 1930’s Japanese population was thoroughly indoctrinated to obey and cheer anti-Chinese jingoism. Destruction followed.
Instructive is the unique experience of Gwen Terasaki, an American woman from Tennessee, who married a Japanese diplomat and lived in Japan during the WWII incineration of the nation through non-stop waves of Allied bombing. The saga of starvation and devastation is graphically depicted in the 1961 movie, “Bridge to the Sun,” based on her memoirs.
When GW Bush led the beat of war drums resulting in the unprovoked and illegal attack and invasion of Iraq in 2003, it was revealing to see how many so-called luminaries marched in lock-step with him, including but not limited to Hillary, Kerry, and Tom Friedman, David Brooks, and Jill Abramson of the New York Times. The Iraq invasion midwifed the birth of ISIS.
In 1971, in West Pakistan, when Pakistan’s solidarity was at stake with the looming secession of its eastern wing, a “crush-India” slogan (borrowed from Sukarno’s “Crush Malaysia”) was unfurled at a time when bellicosity didn’t suit Pakistan but perfectly suited Indian hegemonic designs. A slogan is not a strategy. Ultimately, the empty boast – suited better for a Punjabi movie – roiled Quaid’s dream of a united entity.
What then is the lesson to be drawn from the aforementioned? It is easy to indoctrinate the masses, wherever they may be in Europe, Asia, or America.
In the Subcontinent, unquestioning obedience to false authority led to the brutal practice of sati. It also contributed to inhumane and lopsided marriages, driven more by transactional content than by the humane qualities of prospective partners. Servile compliance empowered upper-caste tyranny enfeebling resolve. It also morphed into darbari sycophancy and the submissive acceptance of an unconscionable status quo.
America is prone to trumpet its individual diversity and, justifiably so. Yet, there is also tremendous conformity of thought and intellectual sameness. This was grasped by a character whose heated rhetoric was able to emotionally tap the dark undercurrent of white tribalism lurking beneath the surface of American democracy. The self-inflicted wound was not caused by Russian collusion. This sorry tamasha would not have occurred without the consent of a vast segment of an unthinking and uncritical American public whose racial vulnerability in the wake of a black man’s presidency was exploited. The unfolding damage is transparent and undeniable.
Conformity leads to miscalculation and escalation. This is a world in disarray. Witness how many in Washington speak with one voice on Iran and its foe, Israel.
Appeasement is a slippery slope. There are dangers to becoming a doormat. What gets trampled is a small matter of Zameer (conscience).