what is it?

We often ask for instructions and guidance, but always resist authority. For instance, when an employee didn't do something, and the manager/boss gets cross, the employee defends himself by saying, "No one told me to do that." But when the manager/boss tells the employee to do certain things, the employee gets irritated, and tries to avoid the task. Another instance, a boyfriend never understands what the girlfriend wants, but he hates it when the girlfriend tells him what to do. A little less personal of an example: as a society, we demand law and order, but everyone hates cops. On a larger scale, we claim ourselves to be civilized, yet most Americans are anti-government. Ok, I may be over-generalizing, but hey, those are fairly typical examples, aren't they?

So what is it that we all want anyway?