Posted by Mark H. on April 7, 2002, at 16:34:01
In reply to Re: Normal, Healthy College Students » Mark H., posted by beardedlady on April 7, 2002, at 6:10:22
Dear Beardy,
Thank you for the additional information and insight, and for not clobbering me! I now can see how the study could be seen from many different points of view, and the results misused.
In my work and in interactions with people generally on sensitive topics, I sometimes feel like a voice in the wilderness crying out for more education and focus on process and less on pure "content." Trouble's writings speak deeply to me in this regard.
As a recent example, shortly after the tragic events of September 11, one poll showed that almost a third of Americans believed people in the United States of Arabic descent should be rounded up and placed in detainment camps. Yet it was only in the most recent years that our nation finally had accepted and acknowledged that the displacement and detainment of Japanese-Americans during World War II was wrong.
If we have to take it one "event" at a time, without respect for the underlying process, there isn't much hope for us. And we can't just blame the current administration or a single political party. More damage was done to constitutional freedoms during the Clinton years than during any other period in my life.
This is a failing of education, in my opinion. Kids are taught "political fashion" instead of underlying principles. Their speech is censored instead of being given the tools to argue for everyone's right to the basics of health, safety and dignity.
My blind spot with the Milgram study was that the value of the message that "we" are no different than "Germans" or anyone else, subject to the same failings and manipulation by authority, outweighed the harm done to the participants. Ironically, it's the same point I'm pressing: I missed the harm done in the process by focusing only on what I thought was valuable content.
Perhaps we are always teaching what we most need to learn.
Again, my thanks.
Mark H.
poster:Mark H.
thread:21526
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20020403/msgs/21621.html