A logo and following started as street art by the street artist Shepard Fairey in the 80's. Usually with an image of andre the giant and the words OBEY written in large red print underneath became extremely popular and eventually was put onto clothing. The OBEY clothing brand was mostly worn by hipsters, skaters, punks, and other counter cultures who realized that the government cannot always be trusted and should not be blindly obeyed. recently (in 2012) started youth in the USA are so judgmental of everyone that they only see the bad in groups and see followers as fake and sheep themselves despite the fact that they are trying to not "obey". The term is sarcastic and is mocking the idea of obeying those who demand our lives follow their pre determined path. Oddly enough it has mostly been democrats and pot smokers or hippies that followed these ideals but the conservative party is now following suit with their own similar anti-gov ideals and "we the people" mentality where the hippie types are now following the CD(x) guidelines on anything they are told to do and quad boosted no matter what instead of doing their own research and deciding what's right. They are just blindly obeying and desiring to pay more in taxes so the gov will do everything for them. Obey could be with anything in life really if you want to use the meaning for your own. It is a one size fits all. But on a larger scale its mostly saying to question the gov.
"You should stay home and save lives man. It's the only way we will make it through they said!" ok bud, you better obey! I'll be waiting for you on the other side I guess.