Remember the Milgram experiments? Well, with adjustments for modern ethical standards, they were just replicated in California. And a couple of years ago, they were copied almost exactly in England for broadcast as a weird kind of reality TV.
The dreadful news is, nothing has changed. Most ordinary people, still, will torture an innocent stranger to death, with no advance preparation, and with their only motivation being that they were told to do so by a firm authority figure.
It appears to be part of who we are as social animals, like blushing, and road rage, and foolish love-sick antics. That’s why we were right to try the Nazi leadership at Nuremburg. And that’s why Cheney, along with Rumsfeld, Rice, Ashcroft, Powell, and all the other people who sat at that table deciding which prisoners should get what tortures, must be judged, and answer for their crimes.
Further reflections, and a spookily relevant brand-new social psych experiment, after the jump.
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