1C Lesson Plan for “The Perils of Obedience” by Stanley Milgram (183)

 

One. Why We Need Obedience (through fear and enticements, the stick and the carrot)

 

1. To control the barbarian throng; without obedience, the Inner Barbarian will emerge resulting in chaos.
2. To create common community standards, which are necessary for a cohesive, ordered society
3. The absence of obedience creates hyper autonomy or extreme self-rule, which results in Cowboy Land, every man for himself.
4. People who are not obedient to the “social contract” pose a burden to society. Take a small percentage of the homeless, for example, who refuse to “get with the program.”
5.  Obedience to authority helps keep our egotism in check. We can't all be raging individualists like Octo-Mom who decides to make society pay for all her children and now she wants a pet pig. We call this individuality run amok. 

 

Two. The Conflict That Obedience Often Generates

 

1. We are asked to obey the authority when the command violates our individual conscience. For example, we are asked by Fidel Castro to snitch on our neighbors if they are engaged in “anti-Castro behavior.” Or our first grade teacher tells us to report our parents to the police if we suspect them of smoking pot. Or Abraham is told my God to kill his son as a sacrifice.
2. We are asked to obey the authority when the command is confusing or doesn’t make any sense to us. We are told we must go to college and get married and go into debt on a house and a car. Or we’re told we must major in something “practical” like business or medicine or our parents will disown us and have a funeral for our “death” by burning all our clothes and childhood toys on the front lawn.
3. Obedience to authority is dangerous when the authority is immoral and simply using its power for total control of its subjects.  

 

Three. Lexicon for the Famous Milgram Experiment

 

One. Teacher; the dupe

 

Two. Learner; the actor

 

Three. 285 Volts: the point at which we hear an agonized scream; how many “teachers” will inflict this punishment?

 

Four. Dormant sadism; in which one “teacher” Braverman is laughing. Also we see that we have “aggressive instincts” that find expression when given the stamp of approval from an authority. See page 220. 

The scary point about Braverman is that he is a good, decent person who is appalled by his behavior afterwards when the experiment is explained to him. 

This dormant sadism and the conditions in which we find safe expression of it is explained on page 221, paragraph 92. We have "institutional justification" of our actions. 

 

Five. The most terrifying lesson from the experiment: See page 222, paragraph 97: The most ordinary decent people can be persuaded to do evil under the influence of a higher authority.  

 

Six. Banality of evil; We don't commit evil as monsters, we read on page 222, paragraph 96. Rather, we commit evil at our desks as bureaucrats.

 

Seven. Impassive “evil”; We convince ourselves of our duty to being obedient so that any harm we do to others is "necessary" and we convince ourselves that we must be emotionally detached. 

 

Eight. The essence of obedience; see page 223, paragraph 108: the person views himself as an instrument of carrying a higher authority's orders and therefore is not responsible for his actions. 

 

Nine. The language of morality justifies obedience; see page 223, paragraph 109: loyalty, duty, discipline, obligations to the state. 

 

Ten. Abnegating responsibility; passing it along to the "higher ups."

 

Eleven. The $1,000,000 Question: Is the kind of obedience that compromises one’s individual conscience a necessary evil for the greater good of well ordered society? Great question that makes a great thesis.

 

Writing Assignments based on Synthesis Activities 238 #1

  

Thesis based on #1:

 

The Asch and Milgram experiments are really scary.

 

The Asch and Milgram experiments show how nice people can do evil.

 

The Asch and Milgram experiments reinforce each other’s findings, which are a disturbing, unflattering portrait of the human animal evidenced by _________________________, ______________________, _______________________, and ________________________________.

While I concede that the Asch and Milgram studies show the dangers of blind obedience to authority or to the herd, a certain amount of obedience and conformity is essential to a well governed society in order to insure _________________________, ________________________, _________________________, and _______________________________. 

Write a thesis that analyzes the conflict between docile obedience to authority and individual conscience as dramatized in V for Vendetta.