Blind Obedience: Milgram's Experiment

Milgram brings something about the studies of Milgram, the psychologist that came up with the so famous 6-degree theory. They report on an experiment he ran where people were told to apply shocks to a person who would be in place of a student: If they committed a mistake, they could give shocks as a reprimand. Plenty, the majority (65%), gave shocks to death, believe it or not. He was worried about acts of genocide and the shocks were not actual shocks.

Upon being asked if they had done that in some sort of unconscious state, Milgram seems to have said that he believed they knew what they were doing. Upon being asked if people sounded happy after finding out that the supposed student did not die, he said that they actually showed happiness in the sense of fulfilling a duty before finding out that, and no major changes, as to their happiness, had been noticed after they find out that the supposed student did not actually die, very unfortunately.

The banality of evil must then be that people, when asked to do evil by others, tend to actually do it, happy for obeying and being able to blame somebody else in place of themselves, like it was him who asked. 

I believe we then confirm that what needs to be inserted in human beings is responsibility for their own acts at all times, adulthood: The ability to identify themselves as agents even when they are under heaviest orders, so say in a war. How a human being can feel responsible for shooting a civilian when their general is telling them to shoot by yelling into their ears is a matter for reflection, but that is certainly what needs to happen. 

Some interesting extracts of the source here mentioned:

Every time the learner made a mistake, the "teacher" was told by a stern-faced, lab-coated official to crank up the shock, starting with a mild 15 volts and climaxing at a lethal 450 volts.

The experiment was fake -- the learner was an actor and the shocks never happened. The teacher could hear, but not see, the learner.

Frighteningly, in one test, nearly two-thirds of volunteers continued all the way to "lethal" voltage, even when the learner pleaded for mercy, wept or screamed in agony.

Of the 800 participants, 659 submitted a reaction. Some said they had felt unease or distress during the tests, but most reported being positive about the experience, some extremely so.

"To be part of such an important experiment can only make one feel good," said one.

"I feel I have contributed in some small way toward the development of man and his attitudes towards others," said another.

"If it [is] your belief that these studies will benefit mankind then I say we should have more of them," said another.

Were these happy comments spurred by relief, after volunteers learned they had not, in fact, hurt anyone?

No, suggests the paper. A sense of pleasure, of duty fulfilled, of having served a higher calling, pervaded the comment cards.

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