It wouldn’t have caught my attention if it were not for the two flicks I saw lately (one, a documentary, another, an old French crime thriller). I have faithfully reproduced the conclusions they draw. Conclusions... quite startling...Unsettling to say the least. For they deal with how a society can degenerate to make possible, a Hitler or a holocaust. Where does this ‘faceless state’ come from? The Big Brother of Orwell’s 1984. How does it subjugate a society to precipitate a Khmer Rouge? Even men of reason, reasonable fellows like you and me(!), forsake values….willingly (not blindly!) do things one should naturally be ashamed of. In fact, most of us balance a precarious sense of values. We think our values are strong. Intact.
I always thought it was the Fear of the State that makes one a Joseph K. Excuses like mass hypnosis…mob psychology…to explain the unreasonable...until this observation touched a raw nerve.
In 1961, an experiment was conducted by Dr. Stanley Milgram, a psychologist at Yale University. Many volunteered to take the experiment. The purpose of this ‘obedience study’ was to observe an individual’s willingness to inflict pain (administer electric shocks) when ordered to do so. The participants did not know the ‘victim’ was an actor nor the shocks were not real. The full responsibility of their actions was not theirs (but the doctor). All they needed to do was ‘please do as directed’. All the subjects administered shocks. They majority did so, at the maximum permissible level, 450 volts! Respectable, reasonable men like us.
Dr. Stanley Milgram finally concludes in his ‘Obedience Study’ that “The results as I observe them in the laboratory are disturbing. It raises the possibility that human nature cannot be counted on, to insulate man from brutality and inhuman treatment at the direction of malevolent authority. A substantial proportion of people do what they are told to do irrespective of the content of the act and without limitation of conscience, so long as, they perceive that the command comes from a legitimate authority. If in this study an anonymous experiment could successfully command an adult to subdue a 50 year old man and force on him painful electric shocks against his protests, one can only wonder what government with its vastly greater authority and prestige can command of its subjects. Courtesy: Ghosts of Abu Ghraib(2007)
I comme Icare (1979), discusses the same experiment, throwing further light on the unpleasant truth. It observes, on an average 63% of the subjects are submissive to ‘invisible authority’ and willing to go up to 450 volts. This proves that in a civilized, democratic and liberal country 2/3 of the people are capable of executing any kind of command so long as it comes from a superior authority. However, it is also observed, as soon as the coherence of the hierarchical (fascist) system disappears as disagreements appear at the authority level, the subject takes advantage of it and refuses to obey.
Three months after the experiment they summoned every subject to tell the truth and asked to justify their behavior! And the script goes like this…
Did you ever think about your cruelty inflicted on your innocent and defenseless victim?...No, l didn't think of my cruelty nor of the innocence of the victim. l did what l was told to.
When they demand a pilot to launch a bomb over a city, the pilot launches it. He doesn't question himself whether it is right or wrong, he just haunches it. But in case of genocide, when a tyrant decides to kill 6 million people he needs to have a million accomplices to share his dream. So how does he gain the obedience of others?
The secret is in dividing the responsibilities. A tyrant inspires a million little tyrants into believing his ideals, every one of them willing to do his ‘bit’ for the good of the state, executing their tasks professionally and without remorse because nobody will ever remember which is the millionth part of the crime. Truly Faceless!
For instance, one of them arrests the victim, an innocuous simple arrest, another one plays the ‘harmless driver’ while he takes the victim to some concentration camp, the victims get imprisoned by another but then he's only the prison warden and, the hardened, faithful ones are for the final acts of terror. In reality, this chain of obedience will seem comfortable to everyone involved!
So, at 360 Volts, the subject ceased to scream and did not respond which could lead you to assume he is dead. Why did you continue to apply him shocks from 360V to 405V?...If he is really dead he would feel nothing, right? l thought the professors knew what they are doing. I was not the one to contradict them.
What is surprising is that all the subjects react without anger, without rage, without any vindictiveness, without even hoping for a reward.
If the advertisement wasn't published by a university but by an individual that would promise you several thousand dollars as a reward, would you have still applied those 405V?...No! I don't think you understood, sir. Money has got nothing to do with this. I will obey an authority as long as I respect it.
So Germany or Cambodia is no India, right? Well, I was hoping you would help me understand Godra 2002.. or maybe Bombay of 1993…better still, Delhi in 1984.
The roots have always been the same…
I always thought it was the Fear of the State that makes one a Joseph K. Excuses like mass hypnosis…mob psychology…to explain the unreasonable...until this observation touched a raw nerve.
In 1961, an experiment was conducted by Dr. Stanley Milgram, a psychologist at Yale University. Many volunteered to take the experiment. The purpose of this ‘obedience study’ was to observe an individual’s willingness to inflict pain (administer electric shocks) when ordered to do so. The participants did not know the ‘victim’ was an actor nor the shocks were not real. The full responsibility of their actions was not theirs (but the doctor). All they needed to do was ‘please do as directed’. All the subjects administered shocks. They majority did so, at the maximum permissible level, 450 volts! Respectable, reasonable men like us.
Dr. Stanley Milgram finally concludes in his ‘Obedience Study’ that “The results as I observe them in the laboratory are disturbing. It raises the possibility that human nature cannot be counted on, to insulate man from brutality and inhuman treatment at the direction of malevolent authority. A substantial proportion of people do what they are told to do irrespective of the content of the act and without limitation of conscience, so long as, they perceive that the command comes from a legitimate authority. If in this study an anonymous experiment could successfully command an adult to subdue a 50 year old man and force on him painful electric shocks against his protests, one can only wonder what government with its vastly greater authority and prestige can command of its subjects. Courtesy: Ghosts of Abu Ghraib(2007)
I comme Icare (1979), discusses the same experiment, throwing further light on the unpleasant truth. It observes, on an average 63% of the subjects are submissive to ‘invisible authority’ and willing to go up to 450 volts. This proves that in a civilized, democratic and liberal country 2/3 of the people are capable of executing any kind of command so long as it comes from a superior authority. However, it is also observed, as soon as the coherence of the hierarchical (fascist) system disappears as disagreements appear at the authority level, the subject takes advantage of it and refuses to obey.
Three months after the experiment they summoned every subject to tell the truth and asked to justify their behavior! And the script goes like this…
Did you ever think about your cruelty inflicted on your innocent and defenseless victim?...No, l didn't think of my cruelty nor of the innocence of the victim. l did what l was told to.
When they demand a pilot to launch a bomb over a city, the pilot launches it. He doesn't question himself whether it is right or wrong, he just haunches it. But in case of genocide, when a tyrant decides to kill 6 million people he needs to have a million accomplices to share his dream. So how does he gain the obedience of others?
The secret is in dividing the responsibilities. A tyrant inspires a million little tyrants into believing his ideals, every one of them willing to do his ‘bit’ for the good of the state, executing their tasks professionally and without remorse because nobody will ever remember which is the millionth part of the crime. Truly Faceless!
For instance, one of them arrests the victim, an innocuous simple arrest, another one plays the ‘harmless driver’ while he takes the victim to some concentration camp, the victims get imprisoned by another but then he's only the prison warden and, the hardened, faithful ones are for the final acts of terror. In reality, this chain of obedience will seem comfortable to everyone involved!
So, at 360 Volts, the subject ceased to scream and did not respond which could lead you to assume he is dead. Why did you continue to apply him shocks from 360V to 405V?...If he is really dead he would feel nothing, right? l thought the professors knew what they are doing. I was not the one to contradict them.
What is surprising is that all the subjects react without anger, without rage, without any vindictiveness, without even hoping for a reward.
If the advertisement wasn't published by a university but by an individual that would promise you several thousand dollars as a reward, would you have still applied those 405V?...No! I don't think you understood, sir. Money has got nothing to do with this. I will obey an authority as long as I respect it.
So Germany or Cambodia is no India, right? Well, I was hoping you would help me understand Godra 2002.. or maybe Bombay of 1993…better still, Delhi in 1984.
The roots have always been the same…
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