Finding Your Red Line: Lessons from Milgram and the Holocaust

As things continue to get worse culturally and politically, it pays to ask oneself how far one will go. What are the limits to my obedience to authority? At what point do I become what I hate? To avoid becoming a monster, the first step is to draw some red lines: things we simply will not do. But will we actually stick to them, or simply go along with the crowd when the challenge proves too difficult? History is not flattering to our high ideals and self-images. When it comes down to it, the vast majority of people will do whatever they are told to do, given the right conditions. That's why a study of history and the famous Milgram experiment can be so helpful.

Today on MindMatters we look at the limits of obedience to authority (with reference to Christopher Browning's book Ordinary Men, and Philip Zimbardo's Lucifer Effect). These facts about human nature may be depressing, but they also offer the way out by providing the motivation to prepare for the future, now. Without a bit of self-knowledge, there is no guarantee you will not be just another miserable cell in the collective mob. But with it, there's at least a chance of hope that you can resist, and that others will be inspired to follow suit.