The Third Wave...a 1972 Social Experiment....

by AK - Jeff 22 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  AK - Jeff

  http://www.vaniercollege.qc.ca/Auxiliary/Psychology/Frank/Thirdwave.html

  This is a fairly long read. Please read it. Please comment on it after you have. This is terrifying at a most foundational human level. Some will apply the points here to the Jw's. Others will see a deeper and more malevolent matter. I hope all who read it will vow to never give away human freedom to pursue the collective good. Evil begets not from design, but from surrender. At least that is my opinion. And how easily the mind can be manipulated to surrender is unbelievable.

  I have just read this and nearly wept. I hope you do. History must never repeat itself, yet it will. The simplicity with which this unplanned event overtook it's participants is an absolute assurance that it will. My God.

  Please do not begin to read it, then ignore the deeper message here. I think this is one of those epiphanical moments for me.

  Jeff
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  Leolaia

  This school where this happened is a block away from me. It really makes the place much more interesting knowing about its history. The teacher who did this was up to the same thing a few years later, when he tried to replicate Maoism, or something like it. BTW, I don't think it happened in 1972, I think it was late '60s....
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  poppers

  This was turned into a TV movie in 1981. I remember watching it. Bruce Davison starred as the teacher.
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  5go

  It so sad that we in America have not learned from this, and are heading straight into this dilemma with our exceptualism.
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  Snoozy

  All I can say is "WOW!".

  Glad I read the whole thing.

  Snoozy...
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  TD

  More:

  http://www.thewave.tk/

  http://www.ronjoneswriter.com/
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  SacrificialLoon

  This is a new one to me, interesting read. I've read about the Stanford experiment, and there was another one where people were instructed to give electric shocks to people to the point of (as far as they knew) killing the subject and most followed the instructions of their superior. Most of us here realize, and have experienced first hand that we can be manipulated, and conditioned to do things one wouldn't normally do.
  
  As far as the collective good it depends on what you mean by that. Humanity has worked for the collective good for as long as we've been human, from tribes to cities to nations, working for the collective good has overall benefited humanity. In a sense it does take a village. Our modern society with all its niceties would not be possible if people did not work for the collective good to some extent. There has to be a balance, anarchy can be just as bad as blind group think.
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  bennyk

  there was another one where people were instructed to give electric shocks to people to the point of (as far as they knew) killing the subject and most followed the instructions of their superior.

  Right; documented in Obedience to Authority by Stanley Milgram. Scary stuff.
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  AK - Jeff

  As far as the collective good it depends on what you mean by that.

  Good point. What I mean by the 'collective' is the fascist approach to that. The fascist mentality that drives people to shove aside personal responsibility for group responsibility, submerging not just part of ones viewpoint in favor of what aids the community, but rather a replacement of ones viewpoint with a 'standard' that devoid the membership of personal drive. Of course, the greater good of community should never be sacrificed to a state of anarchy. But narrow thinking can lead to precisely what this teacher was trying to show it can lead to, Nazism, or something akin to that.

  It was amazing to me how quickly the group-think took control of the process. This was not a months or years long process, but only a week.

  The amazing part of the matter, is that, how many times have we said "Well, what happened over there could never happen here. We are a different sort of people. The economic climate is different. The political overview is not the same." This experiment showed that most of that made little difference. It just took a strong leader, with a particular agenda, to get it headed down a slippery slope in a hurry. Within hours of it's start, everyone had shelved personal moral, to subscribe to group morality. Scary. The other experiments in the same vein, as mentioned by others on this thread, show just how powerful group pressure can get, and how quickly it can turn destructive.

  Jeff
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  M.J.

  "You thought that you were the elect. That you were better than those outside this room. You bargained your freedom for the comfort of discipline and superiority. You chose to accept that group's will and the big lie over your own conviction."