We live in Milgram’s America. Stanley Milgram, a psychologist at Yale University conducted an experiment in the 1960s to study obedience to authority. What he found was astounding and helps to explain the degradation of the nation.
The "Expert" Made Me Do It
Obedience to authority can be a motivation to justify wrong behavior. When authorities such as the government, academia, and media are accepted as the standards of thought and behavior, then thought and behavior tend to waver between truth and falsehood, between morality and immorality.
In the Milgram study, subjects were told to administer electric shocks to a person that was unseen in another room, and unbeknownst to the subject, was actually an actor pretending to receive the electrical jolts. With each incorrect answer to questions, the shock became more severe, even to extremely dangerous levels. Aware of this and hearing the person supposedly receiving the shocks scream with pain and begging to be released, the subjects continued the excruciation at the behest of the researcher.
Automatic Response
Such obedience to authority can be bolstered through conditioning. A famous study in 1901 by a Russian named Ivan Pavlov revealed that responses could be predicted through conditioning. While studying the digestive system in dogs, he noticed that they would begin to salivate not only at the sight, smell, or taste of food, but even at just the appearance of those in white lab coats that would bring them the food. Furthermore, it was learned that if food was repeatedly given to the dogs coinciding with a certain sound, eventually the dogs would salivate when hearing the sound without the food being presented.
Wrong is Wrong
Milgram’s and Pavlov’s findings are substantiated in society. Many justify or go along with behavior that is clearly wrong because their desire to engage in the wrong behavior is bolstered by authoritative figures. These figures chorus ideas that are devoid of sound judgment.
Common sense and conscience let us know right from wrong. It would seem that there would be no need to counsel the correct course of thought on issues such as killing babies, same-sex “marriage,” border protection, a balanced budget, a strong and honorable military, voter identification, adherence to the Constitution, and obedience to our Creator.
Truth is Always Honorable
There are many wrongs that are considered right by many simply because authority says so and people are conditioned to think so. Like the subjects in Milgram’s study, they are pressured to submit by one deemed to be an “expert.” Like the salivating dogs in Pavlov’s experiment, the masses are conditioned to receive “free” things from those in authority; but unlike the unreasoning dogs, they do so in exchange for truth and honor.
Take a stand for truth. Visit https://conventionofstates.com/ to get involved.
