Rewind retro video of the day... From Chobham (Surrey), England (UK), here is Peter Gabriel with his 1982 single Shock the Monkey, from his 4th studio album Peter Gabriel [4 or 1982] (AKA Security). The song peaked at a mere #58 in the UK. In the US it fared better, reaching #64 on the R&B/Hip-Hop chart(!), #33 on the Cashbox chart, #29 on the Hot 100 chart, #26 on the Dance/Disco chart, and #1 on the Mainstream Rock chart. Elsewhere, it hit #25 in Australia, #10 in Canada, and #3 in Italy. The song is frequently assumed to be either an animal rights song or a reference to Stanley Milgrams infamous 61 Experiment 18, better known as the Milgram Experiment on Obedience to Authority Figures. Milgram was fascinated with Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmanns trial going on at the time in Jerusalem. Eichmann was one of the architects who masterminded the Jewish Holocaust. Milgram formulated a psychological study to answer the question: Could it be that Eichmann and his million accomplices in the Holocaust were just following orders? Could we call them all accomplices? Three individuals were involved in the experiment: • The Experimenter- an actor, and the authoritative person who dictated how the experiment was to be administered • The Teacher- a volunteer whose unknown role was to obey the Experimenter • The Learner- an actor, and the recipient of negative stimulus from the Teacher The Teacher was told that the experiment was about whether increasing negative reinforcement (i.e., more pronounced electric shocks) would improve learning. This was a lie. Prior to the experiment, the Learner would tell the Teacher that s/he had a heart condition. The Teacher and Learner were then separated by a wall. The Teacher would ask the Learner a question, which the Learner would then answer. If the Learner got the question wrong, s/he would receive an electric shock by the Teacher- with the shock increasing in 15-volt increments every time the Learner gave a wrong answer. After the voltage got high enough to induce serious pain, the Learner would bang against the wall, complain about their heart condition, and/or scream in pain. After that, all responses by the Learner ceased. Most Teachers paused at 135 volts and questioned the purpose of the experiment. When questioned by the Teacher whether s/he should continue, the Experimenter gave the Teacher 4 verbal prods in this order: • Please continue. • The experiment requires that you continue. • It is absolutely essential that you continue. • You have no other choice, you must go on. If, after the 4 verbal prods, the experiment was discontinued. Otherwise, it was halted after the Teacher gave the Learner 3 450-volt shocks in succession. But the Learner never received any actual shocks. The purpose of the experiment was to prove whether somebody would continue hurting another, despite their better judgment, at the insistence of a superior. When the experiment ended, 65% of the Teachers administered the full 450-volt shock, despite their qualms. Throughout the experiment, the Teachers displayed varying degrees of tension and stress including: sweating, trembling, stuttering, lip-biting, groaning, digging their fingernails into their skin, nervous laughing fits and seizures. This experiment has been repeated numerous times with similar results. So, is the majority of humanity capable of the heinous acts committed by the Nazis? This experiment definitely supports that conclusion. This is why I believe Critical Thinking should not be an elective in college, but a mandatory class that should be taught during elementary school and every year thereafter. Mankind has trudged down this path before (the Crusades, Nazism, the KKK, Charles Manson, the Rev. Jim Jones) and is still in effect today (Al-Qaeda, ISIS, the present white-against-black police killings, homegrown terrorism, etc.). In the immortal words of philosopher Rodney King, Cant we all just get along? (BTW, time to burst the bubble... according to Gabriel, Shock the Monkey is a love song that examines how jealousy (the monkey) can release ones more baser instincts.) https://youtube/watch?v=CnVf1ZoCJSo
Posted on: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 03:48:17 +0000