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People 'still willing to torture'
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by Amitjha | December 19, 2008 at 03:12 am
124 views | 19 Recommendations | 7 comments
Basic mentality cannot be changed till the learning ground is changed, in recent times people are exposed to violence more frequently, intensely and at an early age.And the mass media particularly internet and video games are responsible for it.
So the willingness to torture at slight provocation, by authority figure, is going to increase, in coming year.The best suitable example of mass provocation , and willingness to torture can be found in Thakray episode of provocation against north Indians.
Decades after a notorious experiment, scientists have found test subjects are still willing to inflict pain on others - if told to by an authority figure.
US researchers repeated the famous "Milgram test", with volunteers told to deliver electrical shocks to another volunteer - played by an actor.
Even after faked screams of pain, 70% were prepared to increase the voltage, the American Psychology study found.
Both may help explain why apparently ordinary people can commit atrocities.
Yale University professor Stanley Milgram's work, published in 1963, recruited volunteers to help carry out a medical experiment, with none aware that they were actually the subject of the test.
A "scientist" instructed them to deliver a shock every time the actor answered a question wrongly.
When the pretend 150-volt shock was delivered, the actor could be heard screaming in pain, and yet, when asked to, more than eight out of ten volunteers were prepared to give further shocks, even when the "voltage" was gradually increased threefold.
Some volunteers even carried on giving 450-volt shocks even when there was no further response from the actor, suggesting he was either unconscious or dead.
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (7)
at 05:04 on December 19th, 2008
Sad reality.
at 06:46 on December 19th, 2008
- I would argue that the premise is baseless and flawed due to the fact the Korea has no qualms about torturing it's citizens, as many 3rd world countries in Africa, Asia, South America, the Middle East, etc.,etc."And the mass media particularly internet and video games are responsible for it."-ridiculous. -these people don't know where their next meal is coming from, nevertheless the next installment of Doom, Quake, or the Halo series, nevermind the leftist -Hollywood violent motion pictures or the internet.
at 08:04 on December 19th, 2008
Amitjha, good story. This is a sad part of human nature.
According to the wikipedia, the Milgram tests began in 1961 three months after the start of the trial of Nazi war criminal Eichmann, to answer the question, "Could it be that Eichmann and his million accomplices in the Holocaust were just following orders? Could we call them all accomplices?
The results were shocking: Ordinary people, simply doing their jobs, and without any particular hostility on their part, can become agents in a terrible destructive process.
This test repeated 50 years later showed similiar results, according to Science Daily:
"People learning about Milgram's work often wonder whether results would be any different today," said Burger, a professor at Santa Clara University. "Many point to the lessons of the Holocaust and argue that there is greater societal awareness of the dangers of blind obedience. But what I found is the same situational factors that affected obedience in Milgram's experiments still operate today."
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081219032645.htm
Violence in the media and videos influencing this even more is not proven yet and remains controversial. Many people do believe that we give energy to that which we constantly think about.
at 14:17 on December 19th, 2008
Gangstalking, The "American Gestapo".
It *is* underway now.
Be aware, before it happens to you.
at 10:24 on December 21st, 2008
I am going to reread Lord of the Flies.
at 10:33 on December 21st, 2008
at 16:29 on April 14th, 2009
Sado-masochism. sadly often a part of some 'cultures'. enthusiastic participation by the tortured is required, who perversely feel loved by this attention.