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As human beings, we understand and apply authoritative instructions using everyday
common sense. We learn to do so from a very early age. We may not use distinctive labels or
philosophical definitions to describe what we’re doing, but we comprehend and follow the
fundamental principles of authority and compliance in thousands upon thousands of actions and
reactions over a lifetime of interaction.
For example, a father knocks on the bedroom door of his teenage son and communicates
clear instructions to him. “Take this $25 and go to Pizza Hut on Main Street. I just called in an
order for a sausage pizza, an order of breadsticks, and a Diet Coke. Go straight there, and come
straight back home. We’ll have the table set when you get back.” That teenager is now the
recipient of very specific instructions that carry the authoritative weight of his father. These
instructions, by their very nature, logically rule out millions of other variables.
< Can the teenage son take his father’s $25, pick up his girlfriend, and head for the movie
theater? No! Why not? His father specifically told him to go to Pizza Hut and spend the
money there. Even though his father did not methodically list every possible place his son
should not go, the teenager naturally understands something, doesn’t he? To take that
$25 and spend it anywhere other than Pizza Hut will be to disobey his father at home. His
father’s specific mention of Pizza Hut on Main Street logically rules out every other pizza
place, every other restaurant, every other venue, and even every other Pizza Hut other
than the Pizza Hut on Main Street.