Basic Instincts

[Guard Dog]

I’m not sure how many of you have been watching Primetime and their limited series called “Basic Instincts.”  The last episode followed a modern version of the Stanley Milgram experiment (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Milgram) where people were told to administer shocks to volunteers in other rooms who had answered questions incorrectly.  Here is a video clip:

 

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=2769000

 

This really got me thinking in regards to human behavior and what many people would actually do in the heat of authority.  Flight 93 being a perfect example of the unorganized militia coming together to defy the terrorist authority; how many people would actually do this?  What if in fact this authority who was telling them to sit in their seats were dressed as American police officers?  It also made me think about the whole “stranger danger” movement for youth back in the 80’s and 90’s and how kidnappers simply used the “I am an authority figure” approach to lure the children to them.  It seems that this moves over into the adult age as well from what research shows as many people seem to be blind to their own intuition and when something is blatantly wrong.  What are everyone’s thoughts on “obeying” as we see with the recent soldiers trial and from the past, death camps? 

 

There were many other great topics from the other episodes but this one really caught my attention.

 

Thoughts?

 

Gruhn

[scomith]

Good topic!

This reminds me of interviews with 9/11 WTC survivors who ignored authority who told them to stay put. They followed thier instinct and went down, instead of up or staying put, and are alive to tell about it.

Scott

[Guard Dog]

Wow,
  Great example.

Gruhn