Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

"1 wouldn't have done it by myself. I was just doing what I was told" Unable to defy the authority of the experimenter, they attribute all responsibility to him. The disappearance of a sense of responsibility is the most far-reaching consequence of submission to authority.

The most common adjustment of thought in the obedient subject is for him to see himself as not responsible for his own actions. He divests himself of responsibility by attributing all initiative to the experimenter, a legitimate authority, He sees himself not as a person acting in a morally accountable way but as the agent of external authority. In the post-experimental interview, when subjects were asked why they had gone on, a typical reply was: "1 wouldn't have done it by myself. I was just doing what I was told" Unable to defy the authority of the experimenter, they attribute all responsibility to him. The disappearance of a sense of responsibility is the most far-reaching consequence of submission to authority.



Hence we have manufactured for our comfort that most grand experimenter of all, God. We can now fly airliners into buildings and invade countries for oil because we are under orders, we are not to blame. All responsibility is with the cosmic producer.

I really don't belong here.

Take care,

-Am