FOLLOWING ORDERS: A PRIMER

Too many carry the idea that following orders eliminates personal choice.

It doesn’t.

Remember, when you’re ordered to do something you can do it, or not do it.

That’s the first choice; let’s start there.

From an experienced order-taker, this is the initial question you ask yourself: ‘Who the hell is giving orders around here?’

The one giving orders makes a difference. If it’s the wrong person giving the orders, do you still follow them?

Karen says, “No, I want to talk to the manager.”

But, and this is a big one, if you’re conditioned to follow orders it doesn’t matter who’s giving them.

Hopefully, that’s not you.

Then the question becomes one of consequences for following, or not following, an order given by an authority, or some pumped up martinet.

It may sound like a 60’s hippie-trippie leftover, but go ahead and question authority.

‘Who’s barking orders and do I have to comply,’ are the split second, faster than light, thoughts a ‘normal person’ might cycle through before they start following orders.

Except people get confused when a crafty marketer presents themselves in a ‘Delivered From God’ light.

Following Orders That Aren’t Orders But Suggestions

An order demands you to, “Do This.”

A suggestion approaches the same idea with “It would be helpful if this happened.”

The consequences for following an order needs to be balanced with the consequences of not following an order?

Tell that to the three policemen who watched while their superior killed George Floyd.

Then explain it to the insurrectionists who thought they got a free pass to rampage their own Capitol.

This is when education is supposed to kick in.

Presidents of the United States don’t incite crowds to run berserk in the halls of power. That’s not in the job description, but the crowd apparently didn’t know that part.

“Fight like hell,” is a rally cry for a tour group raised on snake oil misinformation and the righteous fervor of their place in the universe.

It wasn’t an order, but they didn’t understand after loading their heads full of ‘being replaced’, losing their ‘way of life’, getting ‘canceled’. With misguided patriotism, and ‘supporting blue’, they pounded policemen, broke into Capitol and showed their dog pack instincts.

These are people who don’t understand figures of speech, which is a problem because after the insurrection and continuing fallout this happens:

Any beaver-faced man bitch metaphor can pull on a blue suit, white shirt, a red tie, and start barking orders and find followers in the already bullshit-conditioned crowd.

Looking at you, Josh Hawley.

What You Should Know About Orders

Unless you take orders from the barking dog next door like Son of Sam, you are probably with a group when you receive orders.

Look around and do a quick survey: Who’s the biggest a-hole in the group? Because that’s who you’ll be associated with. If you’re an equal a-hole to the biggest, congratulations. You may qualify for the Josh Hawley Award.

Part of the Army training I received in the mid-70’s included how to follow legal orders and how to decide if they are legal or not.

We learned that, “Go waste ’em,” is not free license to machine gun a trench full of women and children to death.

Once that was cleared up, once we passed that milestone, the Army started making more sense.

We had a choice? Who knew?

I mean, aren’t we supposed to follow orders even if they turn us into mass murderers?

No. No, we’re not. You’re not, I’m not, none of us are.

Instead, we use our experience gained judgement and good sense to guide our decisions.

Put your best American foot forward, but scrape the disinformation, misinformation, propaganda, and pleadings of a twice impeached former president and dictator loving television boss off your shoe first.