The United States is a pioneer in social psychology, and has conducted very careful experiments and research in this field. This discipline was established before World War II. There is a saying that the founder of American social psychology was Hitler, who gave many psychologists to the United States as gifts.
This discipline involves science and statistics in terms of experimentation and investigation, and any argument must be tested. The film delivered a very controversial paper, arguing that developed Western societies are actually very close to dictatorship.
Because this experiment is performed on young people who are not sure about the future and have a lot of excess POWER in their bodies, in fact, many social psychology experiments in the United States are conducted by students, so to what extent can this point be proved? I doubt that it is not so much how close developed Western societies are to dictatorship, but how vulnerable the education of developed Western societies is to dictatorship.
In any case, ignoring conclusions for a moment, we can see some of the most iconic features of group psychology from the film:
1. Uniforms, stamps, the importance of gestures, crowds' excitability to obvious single signs, disobedient members, 2. After the group is established, it
will obviously increase the care for the members of the group and create necessary imaginary enemies.
3. The group is prone to unconsciously classify and degrade the people outside the group.
4. The goal of the group It is easy to make members forget themselves. This goal can make people who have no sense of achievement feel involved in a worthwhile thing.
5. The group needs a leader to minimize the dissent, disputes, (including their own) around them. And hope Can get clear and brief instructions.
6. People in the group will unconsciously talk about the team with people around them and call on people around them to participate.
7. Consistency of the group, reduce disputes, opinions, naughty, opposition, nerves, etc. Tolerance of words and deeds. And tend to be brief and clear to solve any disputes and problems, of course, the simplest solution to the most complex problems is violence.
In fact, what I saw in the movie above also happens in any group. This is a characteristic of mass behavior and cannot be avoided. Not only in dictatorships, but also in churches and different sports groups. Anyway, everyone should pay attention to participating in group behaviors. Be careful when joining any formal or informal organization, because the group state has a great impact on the individual.
Speaking of this movie, the ending is too dramatic, although it is not unreasonable, it should be said that all personal handling is Compared with drama, I really can't accept suicide, it makes people feel farce. Because everyone's psychological turn in the play is really a bit urgent. In addition, Hannah Arendt's reference to mediocre crimes refers to those who are less committed and just do their own work, but that's another topic.
In short, the whole group of students felt like they participated in the battle royale class, and they couldn't stand being too free. In fact, we look at large groups through small groups. This so-called microcosm. Experiments can indeed allow us to see a lot of things, but there is still a limit to the extent.
In fact, the original experimenter also mentioned that the seeds of dictatorship are sown in education, which is sown by an educational system that buries individuality. Education is indeed the most useful, and Western society is indeed carrying out such educational experiments, such as reducing racial stereotypes in education, reducing prejudice in family education since childhood, and social superstition.
The most important point in preventing dictatorship is to learn tolerance, which is not easy to achieve from the so-called human nature. The general method is to set restrictions in advance in the system, so that different voices have a chance to be heard by the masses. Although this will lead to unresolved debates, fights in parliament, and demonstrations, it is better than jumping off bridges and blocks after being unfairly treated.
It's as necessary as vaccinations from a young age. If Western education is so fragile, then collectivist education can be imagined.
Hope this comment is useful to many people. But it doesn't matter, at least this movie is very useful to me.
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