Would you follow that order?

 Would You Follow That Order?

You are ordered to fine an old woman for eating a sandwich on a park bench even though she has nowhere else to go. Would you follow that order?

You are ordered to force a father and his child to leave the park because someone reported “unrest” even though they are just sitting quietly, feeding the ducks. Would you follow that order?

You are ordered to direct a mother with a stroller to cross at a less safe intersection even though the proper crosswalk is just a few steps away. Would you follow that order?

You are ordered to arrest a teenager for loitering even though he is just waiting for his ride. Would you follow that order?

You are ordered to knock down a family’s door in the middle of the night even though they have done nothing violent and their children will wake up screaming. Would you follow that order?

You are ordered to stop a man and demand his ID again even though he has done nothing wrong and you only ask because he “fits the profile.” Would you follow that order?

You are ordered to take medicine from a sick man because he has no paperwork even though he will suffer without it. Would you follow that order?

You are ordered to evict a single mother and her children because a developer wants the land even though they have nowhere else to go. Would you follow that order?

You are ordered to ignore a man crying for help because “this isn’t your jurisdiction” even though you are the only one who can hear him. Would you follow that order?

You are ordered to throw away a homeless man’s only possessions because they are an “eyesore” even though they are all he has left. Would you follow that order?

You are ordered to fire rubber bullets into a crowd of peaceful protesters because someone says they are a “threat” even though they are unarmed and standing still. Would you follow that order?

You are ordered to shock a restrained prisoner because your superior wants to “scare the others” even though he cannot fight back. Would you follow that order?

You are ordered to stand by while an innocent person is taken away because speaking up would cause trouble even though you know they have done nothing wrong. Would you follow that order?

You are ordered to say nothing, to sign the papers, to look the other way, to betray your conscience because “orders are orders” even though you know it is wrong. Would you follow that order?

Would You Follow That Order?

The questions in this piece echo a long and troubling history of blind obedience—one that has justified cruelty in the name of duty. The Milgram experiments in the 1960s demonstrated that ordinary people, when given orders by an authority figure, would administer what they believed to be lethal shocks to a stranger, simply because they were told to do so. The Nuremberg Trials after World War II exposed how war criminals defended their actions by saying they were "just following orders," a defense rejected by the world as inadequate in the face of moral atrocities.

Today, we live in a culture where responsibility is too often measured by compliance rather than by conscience. We conflate obedience with integrity, as if duty to an institution outweighs duty to truth. But history has shown that injustice is not always loud and obvious—it often comes disguised as policy, bureaucracy, and routine.

This work forces us to confront that question directly: when authority demands obedience at the expense of morality, will you follow that order?

For those in law enforcement, security, and government roles, a critical questionnaire exists to evaluate personal thresholds for moral decision-making in the face of authority. Every HR department in every police, sheriff, and law office should administer it. It is available for free here: Principal Discovery Questionnaire.