The Conformist

"Harmlessly passing your time in the grassland away;
Only dimly aware of a certain unease in the air."

In the 1960's, psychologist Stanley Milgram conducted a now famous experiment.  The motivation behind the experiment was to test the limits of conformity, though it led to a more serious discussion of the ethics of deception in psychology experiments.  Subjects were told to administer electric shocks to a (unreal) patient who is taking a test.  The results were that 65% of the subjects (ages 26 to 40) administered shocks that they knew were fatal.

"You'd better watch out!
There may be dogs about"

In another experiment, psychologist Solomon Asch found that 75% of subjects would give an incorrect answer in a test if it was acknowledged by a larger group as the "correct" one.

"I looked over Jordan, and I've seen
Things are not what they seem."

As a young student on the streets of Boston, I would watch in horror as pedestrians would cross an intersection against the light, simply because another person in front of them did so--sometimes putting themselves in considerable danger without even paying much attention.  I began to wonder, are people sheep, as George Orwell has generally suggested?  And if so, is the controversial "Nuremburg Defense" ethically valid? 

"That's what you get for pretending the danger's not real.
Meek and obedient you follow the leader
Down well trodden corridors into the valley of steel."

And yet, some element of conformity is in all of us.  Most of us don't wear clown suits to work because it would attract unwanted attention.  Even for the freethinking individual, there are some aspects of our lives that we surrender to the overwhelming herd.

"What a surprise!
A look of terminal shock in your eyes."

It takes a great deal of social energy not to conform.  And yet, clearly a great deal of unethical behavior can arise from accepting the status quo.  In a previous post, I presented the hypothetical Culture 1 as a culture that tolerates lying.  And yet, lying is widely regarded as unethical behavior.  Still, there are real world cultures that tolerate certain kinds of lying and consider it unwise not to lie.  Do we have the right to criticize that behavior as unethical?

"Now things are really what they seem.
No, this is not a bad dream."

Spider-Man's famous mantra "with great power comes great responsibility" and his tragic origin demonstrate that some level of awareness and participation in ethics is required of all of us--especially by those who wield the most power.

And yet, a certain level of compassion is also required for judging those who do conform.

Lyrics: Pink Floyd, "Sheep"