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The Milgram Experiment
Jul. 24th, 2006 02:03 pmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment
In the early 60s, a professor named Milgram conducted an experiment in social psychology, to determine how likely people were to commit acts that they might otherwise view as atrocities, as long as there was an authority figure telling them to do it.
Want to know why US soldiers have turned "Gitmo" and "Abu Ghraib" into words that will resonate long after any of us is gone? Go read about the experiment.
There's a phrase I stumbled over some years back: The banality of evil. It's been discussed many times, many ways, but it's all about how it doesn't take a monster to do things that horrify us. Sometimes, all you need is an ordinary man or women who does what he or she is told to do.
That simple fact scares me worse than anything.
In the early 60s, a professor named Milgram conducted an experiment in social psychology, to determine how likely people were to commit acts that they might otherwise view as atrocities, as long as there was an authority figure telling them to do it.
Want to know why US soldiers have turned "Gitmo" and "Abu Ghraib" into words that will resonate long after any of us is gone? Go read about the experiment.
There's a phrase I stumbled over some years back: The banality of evil. It's been discussed many times, many ways, but it's all about how it doesn't take a monster to do things that horrify us. Sometimes, all you need is an ordinary man or women who does what he or she is told to do.
That simple fact scares me worse than anything.
