Individuality or Bust

             Due to the various interesting topics we have discussed in psychology class,
             I find it hard to pick one topic of discussion. But there are several topics in
             particular, about which I have mixed feelings. Though they are all very unique
             topics on their own, they, for some reason, compliment each other well. From
             what we learned in class and through readings, the issues I will discuss are
             alarming and a bit disturbing to me. These topics are obedience, the lack of
             altruism and helping in our society, conformity, mental illnesses and suicides.
             Obedience can be seen in the earliest cultures known to man; from King
             Herod ordering soldiers to kill baby boys who were two years of age or younger,
             to present day, where such travesties as Wako and Heaven's Gate. Perhaps the
             most amazing feat of mass obedience was in World War II, when Hitler
             "controlled" his soldiers and followers to kill over six million people. This is
             indeed a horrifying thought- but it is not just a thought, it is reality.
             In a study conducted by Stanley Milgram, subjects were told they were a
             factor in a learning experiment of another subject. Whenever the learning subject
             answered incorrectly to the posed question , the real subject would be instructed to
             send an electrical shock to the learner. As the experiment continued, the subject
             would distribute higher voltages of electricity; even to fatal dosages. But unknown
             to the subject, the learner was an actor and the experiment was not about learning,
             but of obedience. The subject could stop the experiment at any time he/ she
             desired, but very few did. Actually, sixty-five percent of the subjects continued the
             experiment all the way to fatal dosages; even after the screams and the silence of
             the "learning subject" began and ended. What does this say about the human race?
             That we would rather be applauded and favored by the so -cal...

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