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Neuroscientists Detail How Humans Are Able To Hurt Others When Given Orders (universityherald.com)
Ever wonder how seemingly normal people were able to become Nazis and commit such atrocities? A team of neuroscientists studied just that, following the Milgram experiment conducted in the 1960s. Published in the journal Current Biology, this new study explains that "some basic feeling of responsibility really is reduced when we are coerced into doing something." The results indicate that humans are able to hurt each other when given orders.
Ever wonder how seemingly normal people were able to become Nazis and commit such atrocities?
They were just trying to make Germany great again.
Why are the examples always nazis? How about "Ever wonder how seemingly normal people were able to become communists and commit such atrocities?" The communists killed far more than nazis.
That's why "The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword"
And if you read SS interviews and books it was also that when you showed up and people were naked and being beaten and hit everyday you became indifferent to it and then became one of the guys doing it. Remember, jews weren't killed at camps in the beginning right away in lots of places, they were used as labor, and detained, and as it went forward it got worse. The living conditions worsened over time as well. It's not like an SS guy went from walking on the street, to signing up for the SS and to murdering jews in a week.
On things far less important than this ... how many of us have said to the boss "No, that's a stupid idea", only to be cajoled ... and how many times has "OK, send me an email demanding this" ... you forced me to do it, you authorized it, I no longer give a damn about the outcome.
Now, it's all well and good to say it's obvious ... but if you've objected, been over-ruled, and possibly told you'd have some consequences if you didn't comply ... I can see how the brain is wired to say "fuck it, that's not on me".
I mean, armies train people to be more willing to kill people ... why would anybody be surprised when they actually do it? You've pretty much been told to surrender the authority for certain kinds of moral judgement up the chain of command.
As so often happens, it's common sense after someone actually explains it. :-P
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
It's the same mechanism that leads to riots and other similar phenomena: people lose their sense of personal responsibility. In riots people who would normally not even think about looting or destroying property will happily participate when in a large crowd because they aren't responsible for it, the crowd is. It's the same in this case: it is the person giving the order that is responsible, not the person actually committing the ordered action.
Now, granted, in many cases of atrocities (think Holocaust, ISIS, and child soldiers in Africa), those involved have also been affected by some form of conditioning or other coercion. Quite often this begins at an early age because children are impressionable, but it can easily be accomplished on older individuals by tapping into a sense of frustration/disillusionment/anger and exploiting it, often by using the intended targets of the atrocity as the scapegoat for those feelings.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
It's not like an SS guy went from walking on the street, to signing up for the SS and to murdering jews in a week.
Well, actually, some did. When walking the streets in their pre-SS days some were severely beating jews and destroying the property of jews. They already possessed violent anti-semitic behaviors. The camp environment removed what restraints society was putting on them. It liberated the hatred and violence they already possessed.
That said, there were also SS volunteers who refused to participate and were quietly transferred without any fuss. These volunteers joined the SS to be soldiers. They were quietly transferred out to avoid a paper trail. If charged with disobeying orders the order disobeyed would have to be stated. Its a myth that those assigned to death camps would be themselves shot for refusing to participate. It was not that simple.
And even when she didn't have a choice, that still doesn't negate the inherent rights of the HUMAN she is carrying.
I would love you to be the "She" in the sentence you said, and then I would like to hear your opinion again. Also, your argument said the so called "human" she is carrying can negate her own inherent rights???
Tell the neuroscientists to go study drone operators ordered to bomb hospitals and schools.
Hitler did not have religious faith. Full stop. There is zero indication that he was any sort of fervent Christian believer. He was a cradle Catholic from a country where Catholicism was the state religion. That's it. Walk around and quiz a group of cradle Catholics in the US on the theology of the Catholic Church. Be prepared to hear people who don't know what Christianity or Catholicism actually believes unless it is featured on the TV news.
Hitler believed he was the main character in a Wagner epic opera. He did not believe the German people answered to anyone except themselves and more importantly, to himself. Calling himself Christian, treating with some bishops, or pretending to espouse certain Christian positions doesn't make him any more a Christian than a Buddhist who also thinks the Golden Rule is a good idea. Or a PR person who is trying to sell fish to Catholics during Lent.
Do not confuse his dislike for the Jews with the previous progroms against Jews. Most of the persecution of Jews, even by actual Christians, was more of a persecution of people who were different, insular, and who had attained wealth through a means considered "beneath" Christians. Certainly Hitler would occasionally trundle out the same excuses, "Jews killed Jesus", etc. but why wouldn't he? It's not like he was against lying or appropriating things he didn't believe in.
Also, I don't believe the Catholic Church allows for astrology or magic. I think they just assume that most of that is just entertainment and slight of hand and don't care. If you were really doing ritual magic, then you're crossing the line, because the Christian God is pretty clearly not on the other end of that ritual. You're not permitted to join Freemasonry to this day due to the belief that it has certain secret rituals.