No man, nor any institution, government or likewise, is an island all to itself, all of us, throughout life must interact with the other, in one form or another. These interactions begin at an early age, to which children learn in many aspects and avenues from their parents and other authority figures as they mature through the years. We are taught in the Bible to: "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it" (Proverbs 22:6). However, the problem that is encountered by many parents as well as by others serving as parental or authority-like figures is that the training of a child is not just the words that are spoken to them, but also the actions behind those words, along with the actions of that person in their day-to-day comportment that spoke those words, as well as the character of the person so speaking and acting.
It has been said that children are like sponges, absorbing all that they see being enacted in front of them, day-by-day, so that if the words spoken to children are in contradiction to the actions of the people speaking said words, children will absorb this inherent contradiction. For instance, if the father demands that his child is obedient and respectful towards the child's mother, while at the same time that father treats his wife with the utmost contempt and belittling disrespect himself, you will discover, sooner or later, that the child will often pick up the same traits of the father itself. While the father may dictate respect for his law, the respect given to in return, will often be mitigated by the respect that child has for the law-giver. For example, if the father has a significant drinking problem, which is obvious to all, despite his words to the effect that he will not tolerate his children drinking or abusing drugs and so forth, he will often find to his dismay that his words will fall on hollow ears. In this situation, as in many situations, it is the actions themselves that triumph over the words that are spoken.
Then too there are positive situations, to which, role models or parental figures are gracious, kind, patient, loving, and considerate in their actions and are known as being self-sacrificing, self-effacing, and moral in their character, both outside the home as well as inside the home. While it is certainly possible, that children growing up in this type of environment, will end up being selfish, controlling, and ugly in their manner as well as their ways, if often can be said that the apple does not fall far from the tree.
Taking this further, to our daily life and our interactions with government and employers, it follows that it is not too much of a stretch of the imagination to state that if our government is spying on its citizens, is double-dealing and underhanded, unfair, inconsistent, unjust, and corrupt in its actions, that its denizens, will probably not be exactly paragons of virtue. It follows too, that if your employer consistently cheats or deceives its customers that you as an employee, will probably want to follow suit in doing the same with your employer.
The problem with simplistic statements such as "obey the law" is that it is fundamentally flawed; obedience and respect for the law can only come from laws that are in harmony with true justice, truth, and fairness equally applied to all.