Stanley Milgram

Stanley Milgram, a psychologist at Yale University, conducted a study focusing on the conflict between obedience to authority and personal conscience. He examined justifications for acts of genocide offered by those accused at the World War II, Nuremberg War Criminal trials. Their defense often was based on "obedience" -that they were just following orders of their superiors. In the experiment, so-called "teachers" (who were actually the unknowing subjects of the experiment) were recruited by Milgram. …

…capable, even under less than extreme conditions, of doing bad things particularly when placed in a context where they are carrying out orders. The framework of war provides many examples, but even the political climate of the day shows hints of this theory in action. When dissent is considered un-American, our democracy looks more similar to the totalitarians we oppose. While obedience is a necessary fabric of our society, it should rarely be blindly accepted.