Critique of Theodore Dalrymple's Do what the Pilot tells you
Uploaded by on Nov 11, 2007
English 101
Critique
Oct 2007
Theodore Dalrymple is a British physician. He attempts to find a reasonable
balance between blind disobedience to authority and blind obedience. Dalrymple says
that some people think determined opposition to authority is principled and romantic in
his July 5, 1999 article in Newstatesman magazine. Dalrymple, ineffectively, tells how
these people are dangerously wrong.
Dalrymple says Milgram’s Obedience and Authority is one of the few books of
academic psychological research that can be read with as much pleasure as a novel and
which suggest almost as much about the human condition as great literature. He also
states, “only someone who had no interest whatever in the genocidal upheavals of our
century could fail to be gripped and horrified by Milgram’s Obedience to Authority.”
Dalrymple takes the egocentric approach that only his opinion on Milgram’s work is
acceptable. He is attempting to force readers to his viewpoint by shaming them if they
do not agree with him.
Dalrymple continues with a conversation he had on a plane with a social worker
in a Dublin hospital. After she states, “I’ve always been against all authority.”
Dalrymple immediately begins with the chain of authority and how she trusted it
implicitly, even blindly, stating it is necessary in a complex, technologically advanced
society. Using this approach Dalrymple “proved” the pilot’s authority was necessary for
the social worker to reach her destination. The necessity of the authority that allowed
him to become a pilot was indeed “necessary.” His viewpoint that her initial response to
the question of obedience and authority was far from unusual was conceivable but
once again he had no suggestions or proof to back up his stance.
Dalrymple continues with, “Civilization requires a delicate balance between
stability and change. Neither mulish support nor Bukharinite opposition to what exists
simply because it already exists. Disobedience to authority is not inherently more
glorious than obedience.” He quotes Milgram as saying “Some system of authority is a
requirement of all communal living…” Dalrymple is inconsistent with his point. Is a
system of authority the absolute or is there a balance to be reached. From Dalrymple’s
standpoint people who defy authority altogether think themselves virtuous and don’t
have to deal with the messy compromises of real life. Dalrymple gives no example...