Milgram experiment

Wikipedia entry here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_Experiment

So basically its this experiment that tries to figure out how people react to authority figures with electricity. Now honestly I don't know how I'd react in the exact case, but I'd like to think that my limited respect for authority would cause me to stop the test pretty early on.

But it does make you think about how far you'd go. I mean don't get me wrong, I'm kind of a sadist, but punishing someone for no decent reason other than some douche in a lab coat telling you to seems...wrong.

The catch is that it's one thing to think through how'd you react and another thing to actually go through it. I mean, shit I act in immoral ways but I usually have rationalization for it. It's a concious choice to say 'go fuck yourself' to the morality that's set by society. My 'immorality' is usually just a disregard for authority in and of itself rather than sadistic in the real meaning of the word. Still it would have been neat to be part of those experiments.

And of course now I kind of wonder if Nuremburg and whatever the hell her name was England that posed for that great Abu Ghirab picture didn't actually decide ex post facto the wrong way...

more food for thought I suppose. Just what I need, more shit to keep me awake at night. Oh and this is prompted by the fact that Primetime is running a show about this now and I'm watching it. Interesting look at social engineering.