In case you haven’t noticed, America is being Milgrammed.

And what is Milgramming?

I was hoping you might ask.

In brief, Milgramming is the abuse of authority to change good people into bad people.

This might occur when one joins or swears allegiance to any number of authority figures, be they gang leaders, organized criminals, leaders of extremist groups, cult leaders, political leaders, business profiteers, or other authority figures who profit or simplify their lives through compromising our integrity.

For a more thorough definition and to familiarize yourself with the experiments of the late, you can go here:

https://sites/dennisphinney.com/files.simplypsychology.org/milgram.html

Here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment

Or here

So who was Stanley Milgram and what difference does it make?

Fifty-seven years ago, in 1961, Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram ran experiments on obedience to determine how people respond to malevolent authority. Subjects were divided into “teachers” and “learners.” Teachers were instructed to administer electric shocks whenever learners, who were actually collaborators with Dr. Milgram, gave incorrect answers on a memory exam. The shock-generating device is shown below:

Milgram found two-thirds of participants were so easily compromised they placed their learners’ lives at risk when authority figures in labcoats told them it was essential they continue. Evidently, obedience is more hard-wired than we think, a lesson not overlooked by some malevolent authorities who undoubtedly paid attention to Dr. Milgram and his experiments.

…when we’re told to injure others, we should ask questions.

Ostensibly, the Milgram experiments were a reaction to the 1961 Adolf Eichmann trial in Israel shortly before the experiments occurred. But fast forward a few years to the end of the Vietnam era where professors encouraged students to spit on people in the military, or to the south in the same era at the height of the Ku Klux Klan, or to the call-out culture of insults paralyzing civil discourse today. It’s worthwhile to understand Milgramming since people use it to control us.

If you study Milgram’s experiment, note how what starts out with friendly banter soon degenerates into something far more dangerous. Hesitate but for a moment, and the subject is instructed,

“Please continue.”

Balk again.

“The experiment requires that you continue.”

“No. It doesn’t.”

“It is absolutely essential that you continue.”

“But…”

“You have no choice but to continue.”

Two-thirds of all participants chose to behave as they were told to.

Truth is, we all make our own choices. Obedience is a choice we often make when it’s easier than resisting or rebelling. Of course, we need to choose our battles, but when we’re told to injure others, we should ask questions.

How does this apply to us – to you and to me – in our daily lives? Simple. Through media, in the classroom, among our friends, family, and co-workers, we are inundated with calls to action. Many of those calls to action include generating negative thoughts, reactions, and responses that harm others. We are being programmed to hurt others: members of opposing political parties, people who disagree with us, people our tribal leaders don’t appreciate. In the absence of strong personal belief systems, the media and the government have learned to program us to believe and respond as they suggest.

So claim your soul back if you don’t like seeing our country being “Milgrammed.” Stay tuned. I will be writing more about this.