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.
Wow, thanks so much for sharing the BBC article on the capuchin monkeys and NBA basketball players. This is actually what I have been theorising for the past few years - that our sense of 'right' and 'wrong' is genetically 'coded' into us... or at least, an innate sense of morality gets developed at a very young age (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBW5vdhr_PA) as opposed to the more traditional view of babies as blank slate.
My theory is that those who commits wrongdoings know, on some level, that they're in the wrong. We all have an inner moral compass that functions the same at fundamental level. And I see it people everyday - those 'naughty' moments - taking an unnecessary jab at someone, being selfish/inconsiderate intentionally. It's an obvious cycle for me to witness - hurt people hurt people.
Also wonderful you mentioned that you're an anarchist. I actually came to understand more about this principle through Slavoj Žižek - although he calls himself a 'conservative communist'. It's just fascinating that both of these terms, anarchism and communism, were drilled into us as something negative while the actual core ideas behind them (community, mutual aid, dismantling oppressive hierarchy) are actually rooted in compassion and human dignity. I'm always in support of power decentralisation. I also realised that for people to truly support this principle, they also need to acknowledge the power of collective thinking (as opposed to this crazy period we're going through with idolising billionaires!?).
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.
Wow, thanks so much for sharing the BBC article on the capuchin monkeys and NBA basketball players. This is actually what I have been theorising for the past few years - that our sense of 'right' and 'wrong' is genetically 'coded' into us... or at least, an innate sense of morality gets developed at a very young age (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBW5vdhr_PA) as opposed to the more traditional view of babies as blank slate.
My theory is that those who commits wrongdoings know, on some level, that they're in the wrong. We all have an inner moral compass that functions the same at fundamental level. And I see it people everyday - those 'naughty' moments - taking an unnecessary jab at someone, being selfish/inconsiderate intentionally. It's an obvious cycle for me to witness - hurt people hurt people.
Also wonderful you mentioned that you're an anarchist. I actually came to understand more about this principle through Slavoj Žižek - although he calls himself a 'conservative communist'. It's just fascinating that both of these terms, anarchism and communism, were drilled into us as something negative while the actual core ideas behind them (community, mutual aid, dismantling oppressive hierarchy) are actually rooted in compassion and human dignity. I'm always in support of power decentralisation. I also realised that for people to truly support this principle, they also need to acknowledge the power of collective thinking (as opposed to this crazy period we're going through with idolising billionaires!?).