In 1963, scientist Stanley Milgram created a test to see how people would act under the influence of authority. His test involved two subjects, one playing the role of a teacher while another plays the role of a student. The “student” is actually a paid actor while the “teacher” is the person whom the experiment is being conducted on. The study is falsely portrayed as a memory test when in fact it was a test to see if someone would cause fatal harm to another person while being told to do so by an authority. I have included videos from youtube which illustrate the exact workings of this experiment.
This experiment showed that atrocities and murder could easily be committed if someone with authority were to command that it be done. In the military, soldiers are trained to follow orders and to do what the commanding officer tells them to do. Many times the soldiers commit brutal and horrific acts with the excuse that “I was just following orders”. In fact, it is punishable by death if a soldier were to disobey a lawful command by an officer. If, however, the command is unlawful, the soldier is obliged not to follow the order. If he does follow the order, both he and the commanding officer deal with the consequences of their actions.
A famous example of soldiers following horrific orders were the Nazi troops in World War II. They senselessly executed millions because they were told to do so. Many did this without remorse or any sense of responsibility. Another example is the dropping of the atomic bomb on cities in Japan. The man who flew the plane that dropped these bombs is Paul Tibbets. Tibbets is quoted saying “I sleep clearly every night”. This shows just how little responsibility he takes for his actions because he knows that he was ordered to drop the bombs by the president of the United States. In Tibbets’ mind he is not at all to blame for taking part in the deaths of thousands of innocent people.
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