How humane are you?

[Ol Smoke]

Watched this TV show the other night and it talked about this device that would send high voltage shocks to people.  Some so high that it

would kill them.  Here is what the show was about.

 

Post WWII in America.  The Nuremburg trials were over and the Nazis had been dealt with severely.  But it left a lingering question.  Could

decent average American's be brought to a point that they would knowingly bring harm or death to another person, that they never knew?

 

The test involved the device, and two people who were being paid to do this test.  They could not see each, because they were in two different

rooms.  There was a intercom between them where the person (A) would read a listing of items to person (.  Then pause 30 seconds and

then it would be that person ( would recite back as many as he could.  If he didn't get the list correct, then (A) would flip a switch and give

him a shock.  The shocks ranged from 15volts all the way up to 900V.  Each time ( would not get the list correct, (A) would go up one notch

in shock strength.  Person (A), knowing that the last notch would kill ( would be asked if he wanted to flip the switch or not.  Anywhere along

this test (A) could stop doing this, at anytime, if he felt compassion for ( and the pain he was getting.

 

There were 100 men tested in this test.  Ninety-three completed the switch line.  Knowing full well that the last switch would kill (.  Now, both

men were being paid $4.00 for the test.

 

In actuality, the only person being tested was (A).  Person ( was an actor they hired to feign being shocked, by screaming and crying in agony.

Even at this, (A) did not know this.  All he knew was that it was real.  The device was a phony and had no electrical connection at all, except for some

lights that lit up on the front of it.  Even when the person (A) knew he had just killed ( in the test, all he asked was "Where is my $4 ?".

They actually walked out of the building without so much as looking back or hanging their head, to what they had just done to another human being.

Only seven people would not continue the test.  Most of the time the test stopped at position 4.  They just couldn't hurt someone for the sake of money.

 

The U.S. Government used the results of this test to show what would happen if people were given the choice.  The Nazis said that they had no choice

in what they had to do during the war.  They were going to die or the other person was going to die.  That was their excuse for what they did during the war.

The government decided in favor of some of the Nazi prisoners, because they actually had no out, when their commanders gave them their orders.  They

had to follow orders or be shot.

 

Interesting stuff.

 

 

 

 

[kami]

I guess you mean the Milgram Experiment: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment
You also might be interested in: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Wave and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment