Whilst listening to NPR, a segment focused on a recent French Television show, which tested the borders of ethics. The show encouraged contestants to electroshock people answering questions whenever the person answered incorrectly. As the person answered questions wrong increasingly, the severity of the shock would increase to the point where the person receiving the shocks passed out. The controversy surrounding this show stemmed, not from the shocking of the person, but rather because all the show lured its contestants on under false pretenses. The show, in reality, was a farce establishing a psychological experiment presenting ones desire and inevitability towards following instruction, even at the detriment of another person. This is not a new discovery, there was an American psychologist in the sixties named Milgram, that executed this experiment, only, rather than using the facade of a game show, the psychologist told the test subject they were measuring the benefits of shock therapy. This experiment was known as the Milgram experiment and it set the stage for what was ethically acceptable regarding the use of test subjects.
This led me to wonder about the nature of human behavior. I suppose I cannot deny that humans do tend towards following the rules set be their predecessors. I also can’t deny that humans will behave extremely to achieve acceptance from their peers; hence, Abu Ghraib, but how far does this innate need within us all reach in terms of affecting our day-to-day decisions?
Is it such for every action we choose, it is a direct result of a subconscious (or not-so-subconscious) need to please and conform? In religion, humans are imperfect because we are able to think freely and in doing so we are free to make mistakes. Perhaps, though, while we still do make mistakes, none of our actions are truly free since we are unable to separate what we truly desire from our need to fit in and obey? It is a little concerning to me as an American, because Americans place a higher importance on being unique, finding something that is individual about every single person. However, given the problem of not being aware when you are conforming, it is possible that none of us in the grand scheme of things are special in our own little way.
[…] It calls to mind one of my favorite movies, Idiocracy, written and directed by Mike Judge– creator of Beavis and Butthead. The movie is a satire about the future of man-kind, in which intelligent people rationally opt out of furthering their genetic pool, while those on the opposite end of the IQ spectrum populate with wild abandon. 500 years later, a nearly unrecognizable society exists, where intelligent thought is as extinct as dinosaurs and dodo birds. While the movie intends that the humor to derive from the hyperbole of human decline, the message is so spot on, it is frightening. In day to day life, I’ve seen children idolize people who have no grasp of grammar. People imitate others who believe the fast track to success and happiness is to forgo nurturing their IQ. The increasing dependence on technology for information-recall makes us more vulnerable to the whims of whoever controls the masses. If we do become less intelligent from the strides made in technology, we lose our ability to have free thought and in turn walk right into the lair of conformity. […]