Are we humans really 'humane'?
Recently I watched the 'Reader' that got me thinking, it was so unbelievable how a seemingly 'nice' lady could have sent so many jews to their death, even if she wasn;t teh leader, just the fact that she admitted that they didn;t unlock the burning church with 200 jews, simply cos they didn;t want to free the prisoners. It was as if the orders she had received had taken over her conscience... and how many more were out there? not just the Nazis but also the discriminations against blacks, the genocides and all the other wars that rise out of either trying to lay claim to some piece of earth, or over the colour of the skin... why can;t we all live together, why do we all want to be superior, to have more than the others? What is in us that makes us want more than the other?
What could have caused, normal human beings to be so heartless? This also reminded me of the famous Milgram experiment where an experiment was conducted, with participants told that they are taking part in a memory experiment and that they are the 'teacher' and they must work with a 'student' in another room, whom they can hear but not see. The participants are told that they have to ask questions from the 'student' and for each wrong answer give an electric shock to the 'student' (this student is an actor and doesn;t really get the shock, but the participant believes that he does). In conclusion, most participants had continued to gve electric shocks higher and higher, even when they heard screams from the 'student' just because they were told to. More details can be found here here
That really freaked me out, would it be possible that I could do a similar thing, where I would harm another, simply cos I was told to by an 'authority'? I really hope not! that;s just a very scary thought, that so many normal people had just done what the 'authority' asked without ever questioning whether they should, without really listening to their concience...
Humans are such a complex group... sometimes i think that the wild animals are less 'wild' and more 'humane' than the humans themselves, after all even the vicious animals like lions and tigers kill for food, not because they didnl;t like the stripes of the zebra or any such silly reason like that! So i'll finish the post with one of my fav songs the Animal Song Animal Song
"Animals and children tell the truth, they never lie
Which one is more human
There's a thought, now you decide
I wanna live like Animals careless and free..."
What could have caused, normal human beings to be so heartless? This also reminded me of the famous Milgram experiment where an experiment was conducted, with participants told that they are taking part in a memory experiment and that they are the 'teacher' and they must work with a 'student' in another room, whom they can hear but not see. The participants are told that they have to ask questions from the 'student' and for each wrong answer give an electric shock to the 'student' (this student is an actor and doesn;t really get the shock, but the participant believes that he does). In conclusion, most participants had continued to gve electric shocks higher and higher, even when they heard screams from the 'student' just because they were told to. More details can be found here here
That really freaked me out, would it be possible that I could do a similar thing, where I would harm another, simply cos I was told to by an 'authority'? I really hope not! that;s just a very scary thought, that so many normal people had just done what the 'authority' asked without ever questioning whether they should, without really listening to their concience...
Humans are such a complex group... sometimes i think that the wild animals are less 'wild' and more 'humane' than the humans themselves, after all even the vicious animals like lions and tigers kill for food, not because they didnl;t like the stripes of the zebra or any such silly reason like that! So i'll finish the post with one of my fav songs the Animal Song Animal Song
"Animals and children tell the truth, they never lie
Which one is more human
There's a thought, now you decide
I wanna live like Animals careless and free..."
Labels: Points to ponder
posted by Roshanthi at 5:34 pm
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