An interview with Philip Zimbardo, blind obedience to authority

Philip Zimbardo:
Since I was little, I always believed in the power of the situation to shape people, for better or for worse. My experiment is like a Greek tragedy: what happens if you put good people in an evil place? Do good people dominate and change the evil of the place, or does bad place corrupt even the good? Milgram's experiment, which preceded mine, had to do with the power of the situation, but with a strong authority that put pressure on someone to hurt another person.

Eduard Punset:
Let's remind viewers a little bit about the essence of Milgram's experiment ...
 
Philip Zimbardo:
Sure. In the Milgram experiment, a very significant number of people, some 1,000, participated in the United States, with ages between 20 and 50 years. They were not students, but ordinary citizens. Mostly men. To summarize, the experimenter told participants: "we want to help improve people's memory. We will do it in the following way: you will be the teacher and he will be the apprentice, and when he does something right, perfect; but, when he makes a mistake, you will apply electric shocks, because we want to see if this improves learning." Everything started with a good ideology: that science wanted to help improve memory, so the participants believed that they were doing something good. There was a device with switches to activate the discharges, and the first one supposedly applied (because the apprentice was actually an actor) was 15 volts. From there, each increase was 15 volts: 15, 30, 45 ... but suddenly, when it reached 100, the actor began to shout from the other room: "I leave, I can not anymore"... If the participant was good, he turned to the experimenter and said: "Sir, who will be responsible if something happens?" The answer was: "I take responsibility, I am the expert, you have to continue". And now it was 100, 200 volts ... The other one was screaming and shouting ... And so on up to 450 volts, the maximum.
 
Eduard Punset:
Enough to kill someone, nearly.
 
Philip Zimbardo:
Well, at least to knock him out. When they reached 375, there was a scream and then silence. And the participant said: "Sir, something is wrong". But it was answered: "You have to continue". Milgram asked forty psychiatrists what percentage of US citizens believed they would apply 450 volts. His answer was that 1%, only sadists. However, they were wrong. Two out of every three people made it to the end! Even if the other shrieked, even if he said, "I want to leave, I have heart problems!" This is called blind obedience to authority. The experiment showed that, from a young age, we are taught to obey authority. And normally the authority is good: the parents, the priest, the rabbi ... but we do not know what to do when someone good becomes bad: when a teacher is cruel to the students, or a father abuses his children ... And Milgram showed that the most people could easily cross the line between good and evil, with good intentions, and say, "I'm helping this person", but they helped him by killing him.

http://www.redesparalaciencia.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/entrev54.pdf

The moon of (90482) Orcus, life and death as the external context is modified

A moon of (90482) Orcus was discovered in November of 2005 and named Vanth in April of 2009. 

Vanth is a daimon in Etruscan mythology who guides the dead to the underworld. She often appears on tomb paintings and sarcophagi, where she is depicted with wings and a torch. She is frequently shown in the presence of Charun, a guard of the underworld.

"Unstoppable" (2010)

At the end of the movie "Blood Diamond" (2006) there is a scene representative of (90482) Orcus in the low point of the 2nd house, when Danny Archer reevaluates the seriousness of his wounds in the context of the pursuit (Orcus) and hands over the diamond to Solomon (low point of the 2nd house).

 

In the year 2009 appeared the movie "My Sister's Keeper" that --together with (19521) Chaos and (386723) 2009 YE7--  is about the main theme of (90482) Orcus: life and death as the external context is modified.

"The Next Three Days" (2010)

(19521) Chaos, the spiritual laws that support personal freedom and free will

(19521) Chaos is a classical Kuiper belt object discovered in November of 1998 and named in 2002. It has a perihelion of 40.9 AU and an aphelion of 50.3 AU. It has a diameter of 600 km. There are prediscovery images back to December of 1996, November of 1993 and October of 1991. It has an inclination of 12.0º.

In the beginning, according to the Theogeny, there was Chaos, a neuter noun meaning “yawning” or “gap” (be wide open). Chaos was the dark void of space out of which the first objects of existence appeared. Chaos was followed soon after by the appearance of Gaia, the Earth.

The Gaia hypothesis, created by James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis, posits the world as a superorganism and offers an explanation of self-organization on a global scale in terms of stability and change.

(19521) Chaos has a deep understanding of the spiritual laws that support personal freedom and free will, like the book "The Power of Free-Will" (Annie Marquier, 1991), or the movie "Prince of Egypt" (Dream Works, 1998), "Spirit" (Dream Works, 2002), or like Wicca, a contemporary religion founded in 1953 ("An ye harm none, do what ye will").

"The Wicca Rede is a rule that means "do not harm". When performing Magick, follow this rule strictly. Specifically, the Rede means that you are not purposely hurt, injure, control, or abuse another. Harm none also means there should be no manipulation of another's free will." (Gwinevere Rain, 2002; "SpellCraft for Teens: A magickal Guide to Writing and Casting Spells")

"Can I cast a spell for another person? you ask. You sure can, but listen up...there are some things you will need to know first! If a friend or family member is sick, it's natural to turn directly to a healing spell, but before you cast anything, be sure to ask the person for permission to perform a spell. [...] Wiccans believe in free will. By casting a spell on someone without her permission (even a healing spell), you are invading on free will, which is harmful. If she doesn't want you to do a heling spell for her, then it's her loss!" (Gwinevere Rain, 2002; "SpellCraft for Teens: A magickal Guide to Writing and Casting Spells")

In the year 2002, Spain approved the law 41/2002 autonomy of the patient, which gives right to the patient to be informed by the doctor and establishes that, if older of twelve, the patient can not be medicated without its permission.