Q&A: The Milgram Experiment
The Milgram Experiment
Question
Hi Michi,
The events of Holocaust Remembrance Day shook me deeply, and as if that were not enough, the war in Syria intensifies and brings closer these feelings of dread.
And I find myself asking whether there is no sort of spiritual authority among the Syrians capable of laying down some red lines for a policy of slaughter. The answer is clear—there isn’t, because in practice there is no “Syrian people.” And of course, the Milgram experiment proves to us that obedience to authority—compliance—has far more power than empathy.
Now I want to sharpen the point: you don’t actually need acts of massacre in order to see our moral helplessness. Anyone involved in health care knows the phenomenon in which terminally ill people, suffering agonies of hell, ask the medical staff to redeem them from their suffering. Of course, doctors and nurses are prevented from complying with such requests.
How many years passed before the legislative and judicial system finally deigned to approve the use of medical cannabis?
Maybe this insensitivity to the suffering of others can be attributed to the fact that the human species became accustomed to labor pains, which apparently affected its empathy.
Even if we assume that this remark is correct, its logic is flawed—labor pains end with the creation of new life, additional life. Besides, nowadays there is epidural anesthesia. Of course I checked whether the Haredim are careful to fulfill “in pain shall you bear children,” but in this matter they behave like ordinary human beings. And since we have already discussed the issue of suffering in the past, it occurred to me that perhaps the problem lies in the formal focus on the prohibition against taking life [and here too, as we know, there are more lenient interpretations…]. True, when it comes to “execution by a religious court,” the Sages instituted “choose for him a humane death,” but human suffering was secondary for the Sages relative to observance of the commandments. Perhaps the most unsettling event in this regard is the death of Rabbi Judah the Patriarch. Even if we assume that not everything told in the midrashim exactly matches the facts, that is how it became fixed in the canon that shapes the spirit of the nation. Afflictions are beloved!
Do you have any good news for me on this matter [or perhaps objections?]
All the best
Answer
Objections. The Milgram experiment is not relevant here. It examined obedience, but in Syria the problem is not obedience but fear. The soldiers carry out orders not necessarily because they identify with them or are simply obeying, but because they are afraid. Perhaps one could still argue that they ought to overcome that, but even so this is not mere obedience, and some measure of courage is required in order to refuse and pay the price (perhaps with their lives).
Discussion on Answer
I didn’t understand the claim regarding suffering.
The approval of cannabis was delayed because of various concerns (and perhaps also conservatism), and not necessarily because of indifference. Cooperation with requests for suicide is also not indifference, but rather a worldview that rejects such an act.
Even I understood that.
Does it seem to you that the pair of words “worldview” can legitimize and purify phenomena that cause great suffering?
By the way, regarding cannabis—are you familiar with the argument that the disqualification of cannabis did not stem from medical considerations, but דווקא from its being a plant from whose fibers especially strong textiles can be made?
I’m not sure this story is true…
If you understood that, why did you attribute it to indifference to others? As I wrote, even if you think it is not okay, the problem is not indifference.
I haven’t heard about the textile issue, and I don’t understand the connection. On the contrary, that is an additional incentive to grow cannabis.
Your answer spurred me to get updated on the state of Assad’s army, and as I remembered fairly correctly—there is preference for Alawite officers, and repression of the Sunnis, who deserted in droves. The Druze and the Christians are very cautious. I didn’t know how much the Alawites outwardly display secularism, and it turns out that for the Iranians and for Nasrallah that doesn’t matter all that much nowadays.
If you didn’t know—Assad the father, in his youth, preferred the company of Jews.
And since the issue of suffering matters to me מאוד, I return and nag again—do you have insights of your own on this painful matter?