Re: Jim Bell goes to Jail!

[mpd@netcom.com (Mike Duvos)]

Lucky Green writes:

: Right. I read a book on that. I think it was called "The Millgram
: Experiment". Normal people would administer (fake, but they didn't know
: it) electroshocks to a subject even after the subject had stopped moving
: and could have been assumed to be unconscious or even dead. An excellent
: demonstration of the power of authority. And the gullibility of the
: average person. 

Stanley Millgram did quite a few experiments along such lines.  His
conclusion after persuading quite ordinary people to administer what
seemed to be fatal electric shocks to a subject, pressured only by the
orders of an authority figure saying "The experiment must continue"  and
other such phrases, was that should the United States wish to set up a
system of Nazi style death camps, personnel to staff them could be taken
from the population of any average midwestern town. 

He also did another interesting experiment called "prisoners and guards"
in which he selected people at random and dressed them up in the
appropriate uniforms.  The guards happily abused the prisoners, falling
into the appropriate roles almost automatically. 

Of course, such psychological experiments are banned today, because they
don't make it through the ethics committees.  Nonetheless they demonstrate
that there are few differences between "us" and "them," and that most
ordinary people will rise to the occasion when given a new pair of
jackboots. 

--
     Mike Duvos         $    PGP 2.6 Public Key available     $
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