Each individual possesses a conscience which to a greater or lesser degree serves to restrain the unimpeded flow of impulses destructive to others. But when he merges his person into an organizational structure, a new creature replaces autonomous man, unhindered by the limitations of individual morality, freed of humane inhibition, mindful only of the sanctions of authority. The cognitive connection between their behavior and the consequences of their behavior was greatly weakened in school. It is these dependent, obedience-trained, powerless weaklings who submit to authority. In any case, obedience must be just about the greatest of all evils.
Obedience is the surrender of personal power.
Within the ambit of that definition, those of us who heedlessly accept the commands of authority cannot yet claim to be civilized men. The signers of the Declaration of Independence risked their lives and their fortunes. Disobedience creates civilization. Obedience causes its collapse. It is experienced and remembered as something alien, something not really our own.