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Article #77Re: OBEDIENCE WAS: Hey, I know -- let's threaten the president in e-mail!
From: Michael Breckenridge
Date: Wed, 04 May 1994 07:51
Date: Wed, 04 May 1994 07:51
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destewar@phakt.usc.edu (Doc) writes: >> As far as has been experimentally tested for Americans, the >>above is empirically false. I refer you to Stanley Milgram's excellent >>and disturbing book "Obedience to Authority". In it, he discusses a >>series of (now fairly famous) psychological experiments he conducted. >>Many ordinary people, acting under orders from what they perceived as a >>legitimate authority, were willing to administer electric shocks to >>the point of causing a (simulated, for experimental purposes) heart >>attack in another person involved in simple tests. This is commonly referred to as Milgram's 37. I'd bet that today, with the additional losses of individualism, independent thinking, personal rights, and the surging cynicism and apathy in America, that a retest would push that number up considerably. Here's where my opinion came from: I remember seeing the original film about the test when I was still in college, and I remember thinking that people would submit even easier today then they did before. Not out of respect for authority, but out of fear of authority, and insensitivity created by "values clarification", the new term for the sometimes not-so-subtle techniques used to manipulate students minds in the younger grades that screw up people later in life. Michael
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X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 11544f,a5ab070e57406043 X-Google-Attributes: gid11544f,public X-Google-Thread: f504b,a5ab070e57406043 X-Google-Attributes: gidf504b,public X-Google-Thread: 1046d3,a5ab070e57406043 X-Google-Attributes: gid1046d3,public X-Google-Thread: 1009fe,a5ab070e57406043 X-Google-Attributes: gid1009fe,public X-Google-Thread: fb1ea,a5ab070e57406043 X-Google-Attributes: gidfb1ea,public X-Google-Thread: 1046d5,a5ab070e57406043 X-Google-Attributes: gid1046d5,public X-Google-Thread: 1064b2,a5ab070e57406043 X-Google-Attributes: gid1064b2,public X-Google-Thread: 1159e4,a5ab070e57406043 X-Google-Attributes: gid1159e4,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 1994-05-04 04:24:52 PST Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!bga.com!news.sprintlink.net!rtp.vnet.net!mary.iia.org!babbage.ece.uc.edu!news.kei.com!MathWorks.Com!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!howland.reston.ans.net!pipex!sunic!EU.net!uunet!nwnexus!chinook!startrek From: startrek@chinook.halcyon.com (Michael Breckenridge) Newsgroups: alt.wired,can.legal,can.general,alt.pub-ban.homolka,alt.fan.karla-homolka,alt.censorship,soc.culture.canada,comp.org.eff.talk,ont.general Subject: Re: OBEDIENCE WAS: Hey, I know -- let's threaten the president in e-mail! Date: 4 May 1994 07:51:55 GMT Organization: Northwest Nexus Inc. Lines: 23 Distribution: inet Message-ID: <2q7k6r$r81@nwfocus.wa.com> References: <klordCopFAG.Js6@netcom.com> <DRW.94Apr28160109@schauder.mit.edu> <2q1bvg$i98@senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU> <2q1kmm$lg1@phakt.usc.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: chinook.halcyon.com