mpd@netcom.com (Mike Duvos) writes:
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.
I recently came across a very similar incident on the Usenet newsgroup alt.smokers.cigars. (Disclaimer: I don't smoke, at least not cigars.) In a nutshell, some business person came across this (pretty active) newsgroup (he was not around when it was newgrouped and became pretty active), declared it its property, and began to retromoderate it (i.e. forge cancels for any traffic he didn't like). He kept claiming that he is some kind of "Usenet Administrator with Full Access". A couple of searches in DejaNews will turn up plenty of amazing responses from the regulars in the newsgroups bending over and baaing, "We're not questioing Bob's authority as a Usenet Administrator, nor the way he chooses to fuck us over..." Recommended reading. --- Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM Brighton Beach Boardwalk BBS, Forest Hills, N.Y.: +1-718-261-2013, 14.4Kbps