In the form of an autobiography, the film shows several important experiments in Milgram's life course. In the electric shock experiment, the experimenter who acts as a "teacher" increases the number of electric shocks again and again. Of course, there were struggles and unease in the process of their enlargement, but when they proposed to stop the experiment, when the laboratory staff told the experiment to continue, most of them continued.
Despite hearing the screams of pain from the people inside, their shocks didn't stop because people in the lab told them that such shocks would not cause permanent damage to the tissue, meaning there was no danger.
Because this is what the people in the lab said, they would believe that such an experiment would really not cause harm to the person who received the electric shock, even if the person's screams resounded in their ears.
This is blind recognition and blind obedience to authority. There is a classic scene in the movie several times. It was Milgram walking down the corridors of the laboratory with an elephant behind him, and the elephant followed him rigidly. Even if there is no rope to lead the elephant, the elephant has no intention of leaving Milgram.
We blindly recognize and worship what authority has said. Milgram is puzzled by the brutal and inhuman behavior that took place in the Nazi concentration camps. The builders of the Nazi concentration camps also denied their guilt in court, believing that all they did was obey them. the meaning of. They are obeying the command above, the meaning of authority, and when they obey, they have lost their own thinking. The Nazis were not all cold-hearted and cruel, but they all had a blind worship of their Führer, Hitler, that made them lose their sense of self and become tools of authority.
In China's education circle, students have excessive worship of teachers. In the eyes of students, teachers are authority. The teacher's orders are rarely refused, which has led to many tragedies. In recent years, there have been videos of kindergarten teachers leading children to check in and cheer for celebrities. Such authoritative orders have begun to extend their claws to children. However, parents are also blindly obedient to teachers. In various parent groups, parents also blindly implement various orders of teachers.
The whole society’s worship of authority leads to their obedience to authority, which is why more and more pseudo-authorities emerge one after another. People no longer doubt the appearance of authority. Everyone must know that it is often seen in TV commercials. There are many authoritative people selling drugs that have been exposed as completely fake liars. They pretend to be authority figures, and people will trust them and buy products recommended by the authority.
In the face of authority, the entire social collective shows a tendency to lose self-awareness. Loss of self-awareness, where the development of society will go, authority does not mean that there will be no mistakes, but when people blindly believe in authority, the mistakes made by authority will be infinitely magnified and affect the entire society. The continuous emergence of pseudo-authority is also because people have stopped questioning authority. This is horrible.
When we lose our sense of self in the face of authority, what will be the future of humanity?
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