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Except for people who may be
mentally underdeveloped or unstable, most of us have a pretty good idea
about what's right and wrong. We know, for instance, that before taking a
course of action one should ask at least some of the following questions to
determine whether it's truly ethical: 1. Is it reasonable ? 2. Is it
responsible ? 3. Is it fair ? 4. Will I think well of myself ? 5. how will
someone I look up to do it ? 6. Is it honest ? Obviously no one actually itemises these questions in such a formal manner before doing something;
instead we've developed an automatic internal process that sums them up
almost instantly to come up with a fairly clear-cut overall yes or no.
At the time what can we make
of Stanley Milgram's "behavioural study of obedience" experiments in 1963
which were later replicated in nine other countries ? Milgram, a Yale
University psychologist, invited participants to take part in what they were
told was a study of the relationship between punishment and learning. A man
in a white lab coat introduced the participants to a student and told them
to shock the student every time he made a mistake, increasing the voltage
with each error. In reality, the machine was a prop and the student an actor
who wasn't shocked. Yet nearly two-third of the participants delivered what
they believed were paralysing and even potentially fatal jolts to a pitifully
protesting victim simply because an authority figure ---- the man in the
white coat ---- had commanded them to do so.
The bad news is that
two-third is a very significant majority. Especially when power can so
easily be transferred from a lab coat to a general's uniform to political
raiment to robes of priesthood. These power centres can make the the
majority of people do anything. As Milgram's biographer wrote: "once you
accept another person's authority, you become a different person. You are
only concerned with how well you follow out your orders, rather than whether
it is right or wrong".
However, the good news is
that one-third is an even more significant minority. These people simply
walked out of the experiment because they didn't want to hurt another human
being no matter who told them to do so and for whatever reason. They
constitute a power centre which no authority can influence because of the
integrity of their moral composure. The rest of us should be thankful they
exist. |
