Speech Comm

[prof-cregg.livejournal.com]

She walks in, sunglasses on, carrying a large bottle of water. She's faintly green and speaks quietly...


Ok, gang. The unit for this week is obedience. we're going to hammer out the why's and how's of obedience to authority, and how that behavior relates to trust and influence...and respect. *Looks at O'Neill and Harkness*

Why do you obey? Some of you obey better than others. Why do you defer your personal power? Is it to gain something? If so, that is, as Elizabeth explained so well week before last, hegemony. *Writes HEGEMONY on the board* This is when you do something that decreases your personal power in order to gain something, in either the short or long run.

Ok, so obedience to authority. Everybody stand up and push the desks out of the way. Quietly please.

*Watches as they do it (or at least some of them*

Good. Now question yourself...why did you just do what I told you? Why were you obedient? Is it because I'm the teacher? Is it because I'm older? Is it because you've been conditioned...*writes CONDITIONED on the board* to comply with a simple request?

You cna put the desks back if you want to sit down. I'd like to get a discussion going regarding your perceptions of obedience. Ok, go.

Comments

[prof-cregg.livejournal.com]

So what are you saying Rory? That you fear me? Wish to please me? Want to save your own skin? What?

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"All of the above?" she ventures. "We obey you because we wish to please you - or, moreover, want to make sure we stay in your good graces. Although, you're very nice and you don't seem to wish us any harm, so I'd probably follow your orders anyway."

[prof-cregg.livejournal.com]

So owuld you call that obedience, or compliance? Compliance is an agreement of behavior due to mutual benefit.

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

Rory considers this. "Compliance, I suppose. Though I can think of a number of teachers who I'm afraid of, and I would be more inclined to say that I 'obey' them,"

[prof-cregg.livejournal.com]

And who benefits Rory? who is the beneficiary of obedience and compliance?

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"Both parties," Rory says, after pausing to think on it. "Generally, I mean. For instance, a mother may tell her child that he can't play in the street for his own benefit, and if he obeys, then he doesn't get hit by a car. But there are also cases of people manipulating others for their own purposes, and then it can affect either party in a negative way."

[ooc: Probably would help if I logged in as Rory...]

[prof-cregg.livejournal.com]

Aha! So we're back to the positive and negative duality of influence and manipulation...Do you see how these are all coming together to give us the big picture?

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

Rory nods. "Yes, I do. Interesting, how they all tie together like that."

[prof-cregg.livejournal.com]

Good...You're learning. It doesn't hurt, does it? *Smiles*

Ok, next?