Period
1, English
The man in
the lab coat introduced me to an older gentleman who sat in the chair connected
to wires. He seemed ready for the
experiment, but I was glad to have been selected as the teacher and not the man
connected to the electroshock machine. The man in the lab coat led me to a room
next door and explained the experiment.
“With every wrong answer the man next door gives you, I want you to
increase the shock intensity on this machine.”
The screams from the man in other room got louder with each wrong
answer. I felt terrible for hurting him,
but it was not my fault. The man in the
lab coat kept ordering me to continue. [PPD3] People will commit horrible acts on
innocent people simply because a person who appears to have authority commands
them. [PPD4] The power of authority can impact one’s
choices and how responsible they feel for their actions.[PPD5]
Why
do so many people follow orders that clearly go against their conscience? In
Stanley Milgram’s obedience experiment, the majority of the test subjects
shocked an innocent person to death just because a man in a lab coat insisted
that it was necessary they continue.[PPD6] From
his experiment at Yale University, he concluded that obeying an authority
figure is completely natural. According to Milgram, “Ordinary people are likely to follow
orders given by an authority figure, even to the extent of killing an innocent
human being. Obedience to an authority
is ingrained in us all from the way we are brought up” (Milgram). [PPD7] This shows that people are willing to
give up their morals, what they know is right, in order to obey a command from
an authority figure. They follow these orders because they feel like the
responsibility for their actions belongs to the person giving them the orders. [PPD8]
The
idea of shifting responsibility to an authority figure can be seen clearly in
the case of Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi officer credited with organizing The Final
Solution.
Like the test subjects in Milgram’s study, Eichmann believed he was more
responsible for obeying the commands from his superior, in this case Hitler,
than he was for obeying his conscience. [PPD9] Although Eichmann was in charge of
making sure the trains transported Jewish people to the appropriate
concentration camps, he denies responsibility and says “the top echelons, to
which I did not belong, gave the orders, and they rightly, in my opinion,
deserved the punishment for the atrocities which were perpetrated on the
victims on their orders” (Eichmann). This demonstrates that Eichmann, like many
people, shift blame to authority figures when they have carried out an order
that has gotten them in trouble.
In extreme
cases, some people feel proud for obeying orders that force them to kill
innocent people. Colonel Tibbets was
happy to obey President Truman’s orders to drop an atomic bomb on a city of a
quarter million people. Tibbets had to
been aware of the number of innocent lives that would be lost because of this
weapon of mass destruction. He did not
question Truman. He did not express
guilt after 66,000 people, men, women, and children lost their lives. In fact, he said in an interview that he
“sleeps clearly every night.” How is
that possible? How can a person be so detached from committing such a horrible
atrocity, even if it was an order from the president of the United States? At least, Eichmann and the test subjects in
Milgram’s study seemed to feel a little remorse for what they were ordered to
do. Tibbets felt nothing. He even says “I didn’t have the first
goddamned thought . . . I did the job and I was so relieved it was successful.” Successful? If success is measured in how
many innocent lives one took, then everyone should congratulate Colonel
Tibbets. While obeying an order from an authority figure can remove a person’s
feelings of guilt for carrying out that demand, Colonel Tibbets seemed happy to
obey. Even if he acted on his own, bombed Hiroshima because he wanted to, he
still seems like he would have felt no remorse.
People are raised to
obey authority figures. “Listen to your
mother!” “You better obey your grandma?”
“Don’t you dare mouth off to your teacher.” But what if your Mom is
sadistic, or your grandma is a racist, or your teacher is the epitome of evil?
When should we start questioning the people who give us orders? We are also
taught at a very young age that “everyone makes mistakes.” If that’s the case, people need to be more
careful about who they obey. Hiroshima
might look a lot different if Colonel Tibbets questioned Truman. The Holocaust might have been short lived, if
Eichmann questioned Hitler. The results
from Milgram’s experiment may not be so appalling, if people just stopped and
listened to their morals instead of an order. People need to remember that authority figures
can make mistakes, and following a command from an evil authority figure can
still lead to trouble whether the person feels responsible or not.
[PPD1]This
is a heading
[PPD2]Title
[PPD3]This
is my hook. It paints a picture that connects to my thesis.
[PPD4]Transition
from hook to thesis
[PPD5]This
is my thesis statement. I will spend the rest of my paper proving this point.
[PPD6]Topic
sentence that outlines what this body paragraph will be about.
[PPD7]This
is my textual evidence that supports my thesis. I chose a quote that helped
prove my thesis.
[PPD8]Explanation
of my evidence and how it connects and supports my thesis.
[PPD9]This
is my new topic sentence for my second body paragraph.
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