Do you have what it takes to stand up to a tyrant ?

In 1961 a series of experiments were carried out by Psychologist Stanley Milgram. In the experiments, volunteers were divided into two groups “Teachers” and “Learners” along with a “Supervisor” wearing a lab coat. The learners were strapped to a chair and asked to recall a list of words, and for every mistake they were given a shock by the teacher on the instruction of the supervisor. The intensity of the shock increased with each wrong answer, the victims moved from small grunt to excruciatingly painful cries.

What the teachers didn’t know was that the learners were paid actors, pretending to get a shock. The real experiment here was observing the reaction of the teachers as he administered shock. How would he cope with administering greater and greater pain to a defenseless human being?

What would you do in such a situation?

Every sane mind, if asked, would reply that he will stop being part of the experiment on the first sign of genuine pain to the learner. A survey carried out beforehand confirmed the same stats as well. But what really happened shocked everyone.

The teachers were stressed out at the experiment and protested the same in front of the supervisor, the next logical step would be to demand the termination of the experiment and walk out. But in reality this rarely happened. They protested, but followed the orders of the supervisor even when they could hear the learners crying and begging to end the experiment.

Why they did what they did?

Why didn’t the subjects feel guilty and opt out of the experiment? It was observed that the subjects did feel guilty and knew what they were doing was wrong, yet still they couldn’t extract themselves out of the experiment. Rather they developed a coping mechanism to curb their guilt. Which included:

• Getting involved in technicalities. Humans want to be competent in what they do, so here for them, the success of the experiment mattered more than the victims.

• “I was just following orders”. It’s easier to transfer our responsibility to someone else especially up the hierarchy. Their moral sense was not lost but was transformed into the desire to please the boss

• The cause is bigger than the Individual. The experiment is for the progress of science. Make the cause grand enough, and see people doing unthinkable things. Wars over religion, fascism, genocides and the list goes on and on.

• Belittling the Victim. “If they weren’t dumb enough to remember the answer” Such impugning of intelligence or character is commonly used by tyrants to encourage followers to get rid of whole groups of people. They are not worth much, the thinking goes, so who really cares if they are eliminated?

The most profound result found in the experiment was that the subjects sense of morality didn’t disappear rather it reoriented. From empathy and care it was shifted to duty and loyalty to the orders. The felt impolite and defector if they didn’t do as the supervisor said.

Why are we like this?

In this modern day and age, obeying authority is a prerequisite to be a healthy member of the society. We are social animals and being isolated from the masses by not obeying the authority is a bigger fear then the guilt of hurting someone. In the end it's all about survival.

We are told time and again that it’s wrong to hurt someone, yet throughout out life we are indoctrinated to obey the system. When we are in a hierarchical system the notion of not hurting someone is dramatically altered, moral responsibility is shifted from one’s shoulder to the system. Moreover, by saying yes throughout our life, and don’t have the courage to say no when no has to said then we lose the capacity to say no entirely.

Who are the outliers, who have the strength to disobey authority, when rest cannot?

Though only on rare occasions subjects had the courage to disobey the experimenter. There was huge gap between protesting that harm was being done to the victims and actually standing against it. Yet there were instances.

Our culture has taught us how to obey authority but not how to disobey authority that is morally reprehensible. It requires deep inner conviction and certainty in our internal beliefs and values to stand when no one is standing, when we value morality rather than bending to the situation.