back in 1998, when i lived in England, i decided to start doing an A-level course in Psychology, in the college down the road from where we lived. it was a secondary school, for teens, but they also had courses for adults, and previously i had done an O-level Maths, for some weird reason {to prove to myself that i wasn't entirely useless at it, and that i could do it in english...?!}, so i was familiar with the place. the course was done in the older part of the college {it consisted of a big Victorian building, and a really ugly modern 70's build, which was thankfully hidden from view by loads of trees}, and my fellow students were a strange bunch of mature students, from all walks of life, and some fellow-foreigners. i think we all did the course for our own interest in the subject, rather than need it for jobs. i also think, sadly, we left England before i could finish year 1...
i recall a few things from this course, mainly that i'm not very food at writing academic essays, another that psychology is both immensely interesting as well as immensely complex, and that one school of thought about a psychological illness can vary vastly from another, and both can be right...
one of the first things that we talked about was the - apparently famous - Stanley Milgram experiment on obedience, where he got subjects to administer shocks to others, in the name of research {much better explained here} and found out some interesting things about how vulnerable we all are to obeying others when we know we don't have ultimate responsibility over what we are asked/told to do. how far we can go. how this can - kind of - explain that humans can be 'persuaded' to do atrocious things, evil things, once Final Responsibility has been taken away from them.
it shocked me, as i had never heard of this experiment, and the teacher stressed that this kind of research would not be ethically allowed these days, but in the 1960's, this wasn't the case yet. in a way, it's great that we have his result, as it explains so much of our own behaviour {and yes, it would be interesting to see what the result would be if repeated in this day and age}.
another experiment was how conformism works. quite a few experiments were done, less shocking - literally - in their methods, but similarly impressive in the results they produce - being in a group of three and more people who believe certain things, makes us more likely to adopt those beliefs, even if they are things we don't agree with, or we know to be wrong. the method Solomon Asch has used is the most familiar of this, and is as simple as it is perturbing... it also shows that as soon as one other person in the group has a different belief, we feel more freedom to express our own contrary belief.
i was reminded of these experiments a few days ago, when someone pointed out how society at this moment in time seems to be one huge worldwide test lab, with our obedience and conformity tested, and how well we respond to the propaganda methods used on us obedient citizens. we don't really question, we put our faith into people who we have no idea of knowing how trust-worthy they actually are, while people with differing opinions or ideas are ostracized, or made to seem mad/anti-social/dangerous. which is what has happened always, and society needs to have 'weirdos' with different opinions, people who question and critisize - healthy societies can handle this fine. but the state of the world at the moment makes having a different opinion, displaying non-conformist behaviour, almost dangerous. people become angry, violent often, because they're scared, and their fear of the opposite, the fear of being questioned, but also, simultatiously, the fear of being oppressed and lied to en masse wins it from the usual not-being-bothered, or engaging in conversation. tensions mount about the conviction - thanks to the media - that there is only one way to solve what's going on, and everybody conforming to get there seems to also be the new normal... when then things erupt, and tensions escalate, the media laps it up and forms opinions on this, making us citizens chose sides - are we like them, or like them? are we 'good' or are we 'bad'...? are we decent or are we rotten...? do we conform, and stay in the group, or do we question, and fall outside, stand alone? who do we side with? where do we stand? what do the people who we admire say?
conforming comes in many shapes and sizes. these times are very strange, and to shout one opinion can seem to be strong or 'right', but who are we really trying to convince...? others? or ourselves...?
that little house in the middle of nowhere is looking more and more attractive!!
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