Our pets are trained to be obedient to us, as well as animals in circuses and other public shows are trained to be obedient to their task masters, but we, as humans, have a tendency to believe that since we have a consciousness and a moral code, that we will or won't behave in a manner that is callous, robotic, cruel, or inhumane, unless our mind is not right, and that therefore, those that do so, should suffer the penalty for the harm that they so cause.
In theory, the above seems correct, but in practicality as demonstrated in real life, through war, through police officers, through social experiments as conducted by Dr. Stanley Milgram, it is distressing how obedient the typical human being actually is, especially when the obedience is structured in a manner, in which the person doing deeds that are harmful, is doing them under the color of perceived authority figures.
There is something to be said about obedience and its need, in particular, for children; for children need structure and guidance from adults or elder children, that have the wisdom to know the difference between right and wrong, as well as the difference between things that have good as compared to bad consequences, so that to be obedient as a child, most definitely has its place. So too, obedience or cooperation within company or employment-type situations has its relevancy, for to follow orders has a purpose of efficiency and throughput, so that, though things can probably be done in more than one way, to question that way on a continual basis, would be disruptive and thereby is not tolerated.
So too, the military and police organizations are structured in a manner, that for the most part, soldiers and officers are trained to obey orders without questioning such, because there are pertinent situations in which time is of the essence, so rather than to call upon their own human sovereignty, they work together as a cohesive unit, obeying the hierarchical structure. Unfortunately, the downside of such unquestioned obedience which has been demonstrated time and time again, is that great abuses against innocent outside agents by military and police organizations occur because of this structure.
The rather nasty secret for why there is so much willingness to go along with the orders of a given authority figure, is the fact that if the person carrying out the order, believes that the authority figure is legitimate, because of their status, because of their uniform, because of their title, or because of their power, and in addition, if that authority figure has previously made it clear, that they will take full responsibility for the outcome of said obedience to an order, most people will justify in their mind, that it is okay to obey such an order, because they do not see themselves as being personally responsible for the outcome of their actions, but merely as an instrument for the carrying out of a particular authoritarian command. This, in a nutshell, is the fundamental error of why there is so much hatred, strife, division, war, and destruction in this world, because "good" people, do horrible things to other people, and believe that because they are not "personally" responsible for those actions, that everything is okay.
It isn't okay, for those that allow themselves to be used as agents of evil, through obedience, through ignorance, through irresponsibility, through drinks, or through drugs, because they have forgotten the most fundamental point, that things that you do, are always your responsibility, for it is you that does them, so that for evil to remain triumphant, merely comes down to good people, and their willingness to be obedient agents of evil, because instead of listening to their own moral consciousness, they have willingly surrendered it to another, who deserves it not.