General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Bradley Manning nominated for Nobel Peace Prize [View all]JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)employer is acting in wanton disregard if the law. It would be especially disturbing to discover that your employer is not only violating laws but killing or harming innocent children and leaving them to die.
Manning's emotional state may have been the rational reaction of a moral person when faced with the dilemma between letting the world know of criminal behavior on the part of his employer and his country or remaining silent and allowing the crimes to proceed without notice.
In the film, The Unknown Soldier, someone mentioned Dietrich Bonhoefer, a German pastor who resisted the NAZIs. I don't know whether you have heard of him.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (German: [ˈdiːtʁɪç ˈboːnhfɐ]; 4 February 1906 9 April 1945) was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian, dissident anti-Nazi, and founding member of the Confessing Church. His writings on Christianity's role in the secular world have become widely influential, and many have labelled his book The Cost of Discipleship a modern classic.[1] Apart from his theological writings, Bonhoeffer became known for his staunch resistance to the Nazi dictatorship. He strongly opposed Hitler's euthanasia program and genocidal persecution of the Jews.[2] He was also involved in plans by members of the Abwehr (the German Military Intelligence Office) to assassinate Adolf Hitler. He was arrested in April 1943 by the Gestapo and executed by hanging in April 1945 while imprisoned at a Nazi concentration camp, just 23 days before the German surrender.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietrich_Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer's and Manning's situations were very different, but both followed their consciences. On one level, Manning had a duty to be loyal to the US Army and to obey the security restrictions imposed on enlistees in his position. But on another level, he felt that he had a moral obligation to reveal the truth about American war crimes and other reprehensible information. Men of conscience are rare. Bonhoeffer paid a terrible price for following his conscience. Emotionally disturbed? Fanatical? That is, probably, what many Germans who knew about him thought at the time. In the broader scheme of things??? What do you think? Should a person follow his/her conscience and disobey immoral orders? Or should they follow the orders?