Discussion about this post

User's avatar
David B Lauterwasser's avatar

As a German by birth, I can't stress enough how important this topic is. During the darkest part of our history, regular people became complicit in genocide and other horrendous war crimes due to the psychological mechanisms highlighted herein.

All those experiments should be taught in all schools, with the core message being to *not be the person who conforms or obeys.* Of course, this is at odds with what the system requires of us (willing workers who don't question orders but simply execute them), but it will lead to a better and more just society down the road. Blind obedience to authority is instilled in us during our "formal education" - and as an anarchist I believe that most of us are born with an innate desire for fairness, freedom and self-determination, which is sadly often beaten out of us during our formative years in schools and universities - quite literally, until very recently.

As experiments from primatology show (like the famous "unequal pay" experiment with capuchin monkeys; https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20150419-are-you-honest-without-realising) , we primates have an instinctive desire for equality & fairness. Unfortunately, this is being overwritten by cultural programming/"brainwashing" in our current social organization, which is basically one giant dominance hierarchy that requires obedience & conformity to keep functioning.

Expand full comment
1 more comment...

No posts