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Just Following Orders: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{quote|Now that I look back, I realize that a life predicated on being obedient and taking orders is a very comfortable life indeed. Living in such a way reduces to a minimum one's own need to think.
|''[[Nazi Germany|Adolf Eichmann]]''}}
But we all expect everyone to be a saint. It ''seems'' justifiable if you put yourself in their shoes. If your life and/or your family's life was threatened if you disobeyed orders you knew to be morally reprehensible, what would you do? For reference, the [[Nazi Germany|concentration camps]] also housed those convicted of treason. Many of those who used the Nuremberg Defense knew what was waiting for them whether they followed orders or not.
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Often also turns up in or close to other guises: [[My Country, Right or Wrong]], people claiming they were [[Just Doing My Job]] or "[[I Did What I Had to Do]]". Often prefixed by "[[Nothing Personal]]", usually said by an assassin.
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== Anime
* ''[[Now and Then, Here and There]]'' ([[Necessarily Evil|played]] [[Shell-Shocked Veteran|for]] [[Child Soldiers|drama]])
{{quote|'''Shu''': You can't do this! This is not right!
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'''Big Nameless Shinto Monster''': Nuuuh! It burns! It BURNS!
'''Lucifer''': Well, that's what happens when you play with fire. Here we are. The red stone, I think you said." }}
== Documentary ==
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{{quote|'''SPC Devon Dixon''': [feeling bad about killing] I'm not doin' the wrong thing, I'm Just Following Orders, so I'd rather it not be me. So, I had to, you know, I [[It Gets Easier|learned to live with it]].}}
== Fan Works ==
* The ''[[Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)|Battlestar Galactica]]''/''[[BattleTech]]'' crossover ''[[Hunted Tribes]]'' gives one of the most epic treatments of this trope ever. Clan Wolverine soldiers refuse to associate with crewmembers from the Pegasus, considering the ship and all who served under Admiral Cain disgraced for abandoning civilians to the Cylons. When someone tries to claim they were just following orders, the Wolverines state that people's conscience should have stopped them, and that they should have killed Admiral Cain for issuing the order in the first place. Roslin tries the [[I Did What I Had to Do]]-Defense, only to be told that the Wolverines have been in similar situations without ever compromising their morals, and that that excuse would have been good enough for any number of people, but NOT for them.▼
== Film ==
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** He should just have said: [[It's the Only Way to Be Sure]].
*** At least that would have been a redeemable [[Shout-Out]].
* ''[[X-Men:
▲* The ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]''/''[[BattleTech]]'' crossover ''[[Hunted Tribes]]'' gives one of the most epic treatments of this trope ever. Clan Wolverine soldiers refuse to associate with crewmembers from the Pegasus, considering the ship and all who served under Admiral Cain disgraced for abandoning civilians to the Cylons. When someone tries to claim they were just following orders, the Wolverines state that people's conscience should have stopped them, and that they should have killed Admiral Cain for issuing the order in the first place. Roslin tries the [[I Did What I Had to Do]]-Defense, only to be told that the Wolverines have been in similar situations without ever compromising their morals, and that that excuse would have been good enough for any number of people, but NOT for them.
== Folklore ==
* According to one tale, a sick [[Nepali With Nasty Knives|Gurkha]] was lying on a hospital bed, dying, so a British officer walked up to him and sternly told him 'don't die'. At that, the Gurkha recovered. After all, Gurhkas follow orders.
== Literature ==
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{{quote|'All right. All right. I don't like it any more than you, but I told you. I can't disod- disoy - not do what I'm told. 'M'a'nangel.'}}
** Ironically, near the end of the book it's ''Aziraphale'' who points out, while trying to convince Crowley not to leave the mortals to confront Satan alone, "Lots of people in history have only done their jobs, and look at the trouble ''they'' caused."
* In the ''[[Star Wars Expanded Universe]]'', Tenn Graneet – the head gunner on the [[Death Star]] – while gripped by the [[Being Evil Sucks|enormity]] of [[My God, What Have I Done?|what he did]], can't justify it in any way, even if justifications flick through his mind. Following orders to [[Earthshattering Kaboom|destroy an inhabited planet]], even if refusing just would have meant they killed him and got a new gunner to do his job, is [[Moral Event Horizon|unforgivable]] to the rest of the galaxy... and to him.
** He does, however, inadvertently save the Rebellion by not firing immediately after ordered. He says "Stand by" twice before Luke's torpedoes hit the reactor.
** Since the Empire [[Putting on the Reich|resembles Nazi Germany]], sympathetic Imperials wrestle with this trope a lot in the Expanded Universe.
* Non-military variation; ''[[The Grapes of Wrath]]'' features an interlude with a bulldozer driver who is employed by the banks and landowners to bulldoze repossessed farms for development. One of the dispossessed farm-owners recognises him as the son of an acquaintance and demands to know how he can do this to his own people. The bulldozer driver replies that it's his job; he has a family to think of as well, and if he quit out of moral outrage all that would happen would be that the banks would get someone else to do his job and he and his family would end up starving as well. Sort of a [[Deconstruction]] of [[We ARE Struggling Together!]], if you think about it.
* Perhaps the most extreme version imaginable appears in [[Stephen King]]'s ''[[The Dark Tower]]'' (the last book). One of the [[Mooks]] at the [[Evil Overlord]]'s multiverse-breaking facility blames the heroes for attacking him and his fellows, in reply to which she queries how exactly this compares to the moral status of their working to kill absolutely everyone everywhere. His answer? Go on, guess.
* In the third book of ''[[The Underland Chronicles]]'', {{spoiler|Doctor Neveeve}} says this line while being arrested.
* Ranga Sanga in the ''[[Belisarius Series]]'' both plays this straight and subverts it. He ''fights'' for the bad guys because of his [[I Gave My Word|feudal duties]] but doesn't commit atrocities for them and turns on them when they [[Berserk Button|go too far]].
** Belisarius himself, goes out of his way to order his men not to commit [[Rape, Pillage and Burn]] on random civilians and in fact harshly punishes those who do such things. Those are of course good orders.
* In Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's play ''[[Judas Maccabeus]]'', Jason, King Antiochus' [[Les Collaborateurs|appointed]] High Priest, pleads that he was just following orders. Judah Maccabee basically tells him [["The Reason You Suck" Speech|no dice]], the King used him to do dirty work because he is a dirty person – and then orders him exiled from Israel. The whole conversation could have taken place at [[World War II|Nuremberg]].
* In Bernhard Schlink's ''[[The Reader]]'', Hanna is prosecuted as a war criminal when she is found to have been a concentration camp guard who oversaw a forced prisoner march. The guards were ordered not to lose any prisoners, and so locked them inside a church on an overnight stop. When the church caught fire, the guards chose to leave the doors chained rather than risk that any might escape, and all 300 prisoners died. When questioned about this, she points to her orders, and asks the judge naively, "What would you have done?"
* Referenced in ''[[World War Z]]''. A unit of the German army has been ordered to retreat to a more defensible location and abandon the civilians they have been defending to the zombies. Despite the fact that he understands the awful necessity of it -their position was in imminent danger of being overrun and to stay would be a futile gesture- the officer being interviewed is appalled that the theatre commander was capable of giving this order, for everyone who enlists in the German military has it impressed on them that their first and most important duty is to their conscience.
* A variation occures in the "Dragon" play by Eugeny Shwartz.
{{quote|'''{{[[[The Quisling]] Henrih}}:'''"It's not my fault. They've taught me this way!"
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** Delenn raised a whole fleet without the permission of the Grey Council. So much for orders.
** In the episode [http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/guide/009.html "Deathwalker"], Sinclair uses this reason, but it is clear he is sickened by Earthdome's actions.
** Played straight in
** Sheridan beats this trope to death by actually seceding and later coming back to overthrow the regime-with the help of Minbari. His crew of course follows ''his'' orders presumably because he is a badass.
*** And then he resurrects it by not protesting a blanket pardon for the regime - in Season 5 there are numerous individuals flying starships who bombed civilian targets and slaughtered refugees.
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{{quote|'''Rex:''' They {{spoiler|built ovens}}! And you're the director, so you know that.
'''Maloney:''' Look, I'm not in charge of policy...we had instructions that got sent out nationwide, worldwide, and we had orders from above not to say anything. I just did as I was told. }}
== Radio ==
* In one episode of ''[[Old Harry's
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* A subversion in the ''[[Traveller]]'' volume ''Alien Races 4''. The Bwaps are a race whose hat is being [[Badass Bureaucrat|Badass Bureaucrats]]. In one side story a Bwap starport official is processing incoming passengers. The Bwap stopped a mother and her baby, claiming a petty technicality and caused the whole line behind her to become indignant at his supposed stupidity. But as it turned out the passengers behind were terrorists and the Bwap was pretending to be Just Following Orders as a [[Batman Gambit]] to delay them so that SWAT could get into place—using stereotypes to divert suspicion. After the incident the Bwap insisted that the mother he was delaying share in the reward.
== Theatre ==
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* Krupp, the policeman in ''The Time of Your Life'': "All I do is carry out orders, carry out orders." His orders: "To keep the peace down here on the waterfront." His friend, McCarthy the longshoreman, asks him if that means hitting him over the head with a club if he's on duty and standing on the opposite side.
* The constable in ''[[Fiddler on the Roof]]''.
== Video Games ==
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* ''[[Ninety-Nine Nights]]''. In Tyurru's story, Yesperratt justifies killing civilians by saying that she's just following orders.
* In ''[[Alpha Protocol]]'', {{spoiler|Parker and Westridge}} uses this as their defense for their complicity in the whole Halbech fiasco and for {{spoiler|sending Mike to Saudi Arabia with the intention of [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness|having him killed once he'd completed his mission]].}}
* The classic arcade shooter ''[[Sunset Riders]]'' does this after one of the boss fights. After the beaten but still alive boss falls to the ground, his sister suddenly runs up and says "please don't shoot my brother. He was just following orders." Ever the chivalrous gentleman cowboy, your character can't turn down a request from a lady and agrees to spare him. Note that this is the only time you spare a boss; every other one gets a bullet between the eyes, even if he was just following orders.
** It's rather odd that she would specifically ask you not to shoot him considering that, in order to beat the guy, you have to shoot him about a hundred times. What's one more bullet?
*** [[Critical Existence Failure]], clearly.
* ''[[Mega Man 8]]'' features Sword Man, the one robot master who doesn't seem to have any problem with Mega Man; in fact, he seems to respect him quite a bit. He invokes this trope (along with [[Nothing Personal]]) right before you fight him.
* ''[[Assassin Blue]]'' uses this as an excuse for killing {{spoiler|at least initially.}}
* If you take [[The Paragon]] option, Commander Shepard in ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'' can get two prison guards to avert this trope when beating up a prisoner.
{{quote|'''Shepard''': This degrades you as much as him.
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* ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'' had the eponymous amorph [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2011-01-20 explain fine details] of "I'm just doing my job".
* In ''[[Escape from Terra]]'' a UW gunner who incinerated a defenseless Cerean homestead tried to use this excuse, though to be fair his superior who ordered the attack had assurred him he'd be taking full responsibility. The court did not see it that way, he and the ordering officer were both executed.
== Western Animation ==
* After being defeated in a water balloon war, one of Nelson's goons says this in ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' episode "Bart the General." Bart spares them and pelts Nelson with the extra balloons instead.
* In one episode of ''[[Johnny Test]]'', Johnny, his friends and [[Go-Karting with Bowser|enemies]] start to have a drag race but are stopped by the sheriff. The General tries to fast-talk their way through before yelling, "GO around him! the general rules!" The two secret agents call this trope as they do just that.
== Real Life ==
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* The New York City Police Department (NYPD) marched to protest a few of their fellow cops being charged with sweeping crimes under the rug. The slogan on their sign was the name of this very trope. Analogues to [[Godwin's Law|Nazi Germany]] were [http://gawker.com/5854503/dear-nypd-just-following-orders-is-not-a-good-slogan not far behind].
* Stanley Milgram's infamous psychological experiment in obedience, which tested whether people would willingly administer what they thought were painful, or even harmful, electrical shocks to another person if ordered to do so by an apparently knowledgeable authority. Over and over again, the majority of subjects were seen to follow the experimenter's instructions through to the end, although the "victim" voiced their protests, and even claimed to have a heart condition that could ''kill them'' if the shocks got too strong. This means that we are psychologically programmed to submit to authority. To be fair, many of the subjects started showing signs of psychological distress when pressed to keep going. Of course, when you hear the pre-Adler style acting in the recordings played after each shock, you probably wouldn't think of it was a real person either.
* Another famous experiment, [[w:Stanford prison experiment|the Stanford Prison Experiment]], showed that even ordinary people given authority over their peers will invariably become drunk on power, ''[[Punch Clock Villain|even when they go back to normal lives outside of the prison]]''. More recent experiments have shown that one is more likely to abuse authority if the position involves power without respect and/or prestige (e.g. traffic cops, the DMV, staff managers). This means they won't get in trouble if caught and are unlikely to lose much even if they do. Or they hate the job so much they just don't care.
* The Watergate burglars used the Just Following Orders defense, and ''succeeded''. Notably, it succeeded because they had what they believed to be a lawful order, issued from the appropriate authority (the President), and they followed the order in the expectation that it was entirely valid. The Watergate scandal erupted and threatened to consume Nixon, but the grunts that actually committed the physical crime were acquitted. Remember, most people asked to do something by the Leader of the Free World tend to listen.
** The fallout from this is a law referred to as Martinez-Baker, and is still on the books. The precedent is that while you are responsible for refusing illegal orders, you must actually ''know'' that the order was illegal before you can be faulted for it. And while any reasonable person knows that (for example) murdering innocent bystanders in cold blood is not kosher, fewer can be expected to telepathically divine that their chain of command is lying to them when they say that there is a valid surveillance warrant to plant this bug and it turns that nope, there wasn't.
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* The entire Romanian political police got away with everything they did after '89, because they were just following orders. Interestingly the people who's orders they followed suddenly turned out to be [[Good All Along]], and promptly executed the Ceausescu couple as an act of justice. It worked. Nobody else was brought to trial for their atrocities.
* Many of the torturers in the Hanoi Hotel were brainwashed teenage boys whose families were being held hostage by Pol Pot. They were told to either follow orders or they and their whole families would have the same fate as the prisoners. In later interviews, this trope is their justification, saying that they too were prisoners. It falls apart when one of the few survivors confronts his captor.
* James Fred Blake was only a bus driver [[Deep South|in Alabama]]. [[Foreshadowing|One day in 1943, a black woman called Parks boarded the bus and paid the fare. She then moved to her seat but Blake told her to follow city rules and enter the bus again from the back door]]. [[Kick the Dog|Parks exited the bus, but before she could re-board at the rear door, Blake drove off, leaving her to walk home in the rain.]]
{{quote|"I wasn't trying to do anything to that Parks woman except do my job. She was in violation of the city codes, so what was I supposed to do? That damn bus was full and she wouldn't move back. I had my orders."}}
* There was at least one incident of an employee cutting off some branches from a couple of trees, damaging the cars parked underneath them in the process. The employee claimed he was ordered to cut the branches and had no other choice bot to follow the orders, and his boss is responsible for everything.
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