I am watching a recreation of the classic Milgram experiment

[nadinbrzezinski]

We really need individual officers to defy orders. Until that happens officers will not...and it s not them. It is WH we are. I was impressed that repeating them for the science channel it woud work this well. 77% went all the way. It only changed when actor said no.

I wonder how long until an officer does that...take off badge and refuse.

[Tansy_Gold]

1. Stanley Milgram

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Milgram

Milgram was influenced by the events of the Nazi Holocaust to carry out an experiment that would demonstrate the relationship between obedience and authority.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. And they redid the whole thing

For curiosity with the same results.

[Fire Walk With Me]

3. ...

:scared:

[Tansy_Gold]

4. But why should anyone be surprised?

We take ordinary young people from all walks of life, put them into "basic training" and teach them to kill, and we have no compunction as a society about it. Then we are surprised when they go into a place where they are told to kill people and they actually kill people??

I'm not a psychologist by any means, but doesn't it just sort of make sense that the human species has some kind of "obedience" gene or something hardwired into the human brain that generates this kind of obedience as a requirement for social living? Don't we see it to some extent in "pack" animals that have a natural hierarchy in which everyone else is subordinate to the alphas? If we didn't have that kind of behavior, we'd have complete anarchy. We couldn't live together even in small groups, because we'd have no ability to conform our behavior to a social norm. That, too, is obedience. And let's face it, as a society we behave in many ways like Milgram's volunteers. We still have people, right here on DU every day of the week, who virtually demand the killing of people they've been told have done a bad thing. A murderer, a rapist, a child abuser -- "He should be shot." "I'm opposed to death penalty but in his case, I'd make an exception." -- it goes on and on.

What frightens me more than reading about Milgram is knowing that we've learned so little from what he did.


In fact, I'd almost say we've learned absolutely nothing.



TG