September 16 - 30, 2017
PHILIPPINE ASIAN NEWS TODAY
durianrepublic
by JJ Atencio
I’ve often wondered how gen-
erally decent people could support
extra-judicial killings (EJK), or at
least allow it to happen. If one looks
at social media, we read so many
versions of “Let’s kill all the pushers
and addicts!” that you’d think that
this country was intolerant and mur-
derous.
The reality is we’re not. It’s
more fun in the Philippines, to be
sure, but there’s a behavioral dy-
namic going on that’s actually clos-
er than we think, as the supporters
of the government’s war on drugs
include our relatives, close friends,
officemates, even church mates.
So what gives? How can we
explain and therefore understand
why good people sometimes act
badly, even against their moral con-
victions?
In 1962, social psycholo-
gist Stanley Milner conducted
groundbreaking experiments at
Yale University on obedience and
authority. The experiment involved
a volunteer who was instructed by
an authority figure - in this case,
the experimenter - to give an elec-
tric shock to a subject every time
he gave a wrong answer. The vol-
The Psychology of EJK Support
unteer was also
instructed
that
the more wrong
answers the subject gave, the more
powerful the electric shocks would
be. Of course, what the volunteer
didn’t know was that the subject re-
ceiving the electric shock was actu-
ally an actor pretending to be hurt
in excruciating pain with the electric
shocks.
The results were controversial
because, ordinarily, we’d like to be-
lieve that good people didn’t do bad
things willingly, and that only evil
people would do horrific acts of in-
flicting pain.
The results of the experiments,
in fact, were the opposite.
To quote directly from
the
analysis,
“Despite
their
reservations, most volunteers con-
tinued to follow the orders of the
experimenter and inflict progres-
sively greater shocks. This is even
when they could hear the cries of
the other subject, and even when
that person pleaded to be let out of
the experiment.” Milgram himself
notes, “...a substantial proportion
continue to the last shock on the
generator”.
Now, what does this explain?
First, that good people can
be coerced by an authority fig-
ure to obey instruction even when
such action is against their moral
convictions, if the authority is le-
gitimate and, more importantly, if
the responsibility for such actions
can be passed on to the author-
ity figure. It’s like, “I cannot be at
fault because I was only following
orders.”
The concept of obedience to
authority is so engrained in us that
it leaves us vulnerable to coping
mechanisms to rationalize a harm-
ful deed. Statements such as “the
Andrew Scheer Fights To
Save Local Business
OTTAWA, ON – Andrew Scheer,
Leader of the Conservative Party of
Canada, today launched the Save
Local Business campaign. The
Trudeau Liberals are planning major
tax increases on local businesses,
which would threaten the livelihoods of
hundreds of thousands of Canadians.
“Canada’s Conservatives are
fighting to save local business, and the
jobs they create, from Justin Trudeau’s
latest tax hike. The Trudeau Liberals
want to make local businesses pay
more, regardless of the cost to jobs
or the impact on local communities,”
said Andrew Scheer.
Justin Trudeau has previously
said he believes that small businesses
are mainly a way for the wealthy to
save on their taxes.
“We’re not talking about
multinational corporations. We’re
talking about our neighbors. They’re
the coffee shop owners, the farmers,
and mechanics who are the heart and
soul of our communities. These are
good people, hardworking people,
honest taxpayers who are being
demonized by the Trudeau Liberals
because the government can’t get
its spending under control. There’s
nothing fair about targeting local
business.”
The Save Local Business
campaign will reach out to Canadians
and ask them to show their support for
local businesses in their community.
“Canada’s
Conservatives
respect local businesses and the
people who rely on them for a living,”
said Scheer. “We’re fighting this tax
hike every step of the way.”
The campaign website can be
found at: SaveLocalBusiness.ca.
WWW.PHILIPPINEASIANNEWSTODAY.COM
ends justifies the means”, or “they’re
criminals and subhuman anyway”
have been used to rationalize sup-
port for the Nazi extermination of
the Jews in World War 2.
We also cope by accepting re-
alty selectively: “let’s look at the big-
ger picture” or “we should expect
some civilian casualties in a war.”
The problem is, it seems okay
for as long as someone else is pull-
ing trigger and is willing to accept
that responsibility. A good question
to ask in times like this is: if it was
me, can I pull the trigger myself?