Intelligent disobedience<\/a> is a trained virtue in seeing-eye dogs. Picture a blind woman trying to cross a street. A hybrid car approaches, too quiet for her to hear. She moves to cross the street. Her dog sees the car and disobeys his master’s command. And that’s a good thing.<\/p>\n To be fair, I know that this is actually the exception in dog training. As the owner of a puppy-school dropout, I know that most of the time it’s in a dog’s own interest to obey its master. Not all humans are dogs, though, and the concept of intelligent disobedience can actually be quite valuable for anyone with a shred of virtue. It’s akin to civil disobedience when thoughtful people decide society has gone astray. Or creative thinking, when everyone else seems stuck in a rut. <\/em><\/p>\n But anarchy only works as a minority approach. If we all disobeyed everything<\/em>, there would be nothing left of substance. Without substance\u2014 well, what then are the anarchists supposed to tear down? You can only stomp on rubble so long before it starts to look merely like a teenage tantrum. So perhaps for every demolitionist, the world needs nine engineers building things back up?<\/p>\n Questioning, challenging, even tearing things down is important, but it’s also the easiest part of the equation because it’s reactionary. It’s always simpler to react to things than to create them in the first place. Frankly, I’m more interested in the act of creation. In my opinion, it’s a fascinating mix of obedience and disobedience. We obey proven principles to carry us to the limits of our current understanding of things. We obey right up to the edge of our comfort zone. Then we disobey certain assumed limits in order to achieve something new. That’s creativity.<\/p>\n I’m currently directing a film that’s all about that sort of balance. One of the personalities we’re profiling, for instance, is Mike May. He obeys certain principles that help him get around, in fact he has created a GPS system that provides a reliable resource allowing people with impaired vision to navigate<\/a> like never before. Then, at certain opportune moments, Mike disobeys limitations that might seem imposed on him. The writer Robert Kurson named his book on Mike after these moments: Crashing Through<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n While those dramatic leaps of faith are the stuff of great stories, even Mike acknowledges that much of life is preparation for those moments. While we were filming, he told me his speed skiing coach, the great Franz Weber<\/a>, always said: “people say I\u2019m crazy for going a hundred and thirty miles an hour. You\u2019re only crazy if you don\u2019t train for it.” That training, from the former World Champion, provided Mike with his own speed skiing world record: 65 miles an hour, completely blind (a record that still stands).<\/p>\n Preparation like that sounds a little like obedience, and is that really so bad? Obey what propels you forward; disobey what holds you back (unless a hybrid car is coming).<\/p>\n Thanks for reading. Cheers,<\/p>\n![\"Greg\"](\"http:\/\/gihamilton.com\/blog\/images\/greg_signed72.jpg\" "\\"Greg\\"")
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