Psychology class is teaching me so much. It's a core class, as I want to study medicine or biochemistry eventually. We were assigned to read about obedience. We looked at a world famous study by Stanley Milgram called Milgrams study. I encourage everyone here to Google it. The gist of the experiment is that he was able to get normal people to administer what they believed to be deadly electric shocks to subjects in another room. The people did this because as Milgram concludes "the key to their behavior lies not in pent up aggression but in the nature of their relationship to authority. They have given themselves to the authority; They see themselves as instruments for the execution of his wishes; once so defined, they are unable to break free."
Our textbook states "that for many, the demands of the role and the social pressures of the situation defeat the inner voice of conscience." This is scary, especially since the GB is telling us to obey even if instructions make no sense. Also these disturbing videos they are showing to elders frighten me. I know good people that will do inhumane things in the name of obedience to GB authority. The GB is encouraging elders to feel that they are in the role of Jehovah's personal judges. Wanting to live up to this role causes ordinarily nice people to become monsters like Saul. They fail to report child abuse because their bosses tell them not to. They encourage friends to die instead of taking blood. They tell grandkids they can't see their grandparents. I have no doubt that some and likely a good number of elders would be willing to kill and encourage others to kill if so ordered. The GB wants this type of obedience. Milgrams study shows the dangers of uncritical obedience. Sadly in some cases up to 90% of the participants followed orders to administer dangerous shocks albeit with great deals of reluctance and emotional anguish. Please read this study performed in the late 60s.