John Hayward Posted: 18 March 2010
Keywords: Lifestyle Issues, Worldviews & Culture,
'How will I tell my husband and my children what I've done?' (tearful Game of Death contestant)
In a critique of reality TV shows, a French TV documentary has replicated the 1960s experiment conducted by social psychologist Stanley Milgram at Yale University, in which ordinary people reveal a disturbing capacity to become torturers or even executioners.
The controversial Game of Death, broadcast on prime-time TV across France last night, showed 80 people taking part in what they thought was a game show pilot in which they were asked to deliver electric shocks to a man they believed was another contestant whenever he failed to answer a question correctly – with increasingly powerful shocks of up to 380 volts. 80 per cent of the participants delivered what they would have believed should be the ultimate, potentially lethal shock, despite the man's screams of agony and pleas for them to stop. This compares with 65 per cent of Milgram's participants who delivered what they believed to be a 450-volt shock.
A psychologist who took part in the documentary says it showed the 'terrifying power of TV.' However, surely it rather confirms what Milgram originally demonstrated, that 'even when the destructive effects of their work become patently clear, and they are asked to carry out actions incompatible with fundamental standards of morality, relatively few people have the resources needed to resist authority.'
In a studio discussion following the documentary, a psychiatrist observed that the experiment shows the importance of explaining rules to children, rather than just imposing them, as only those with experience of rebelling can muster the strength to disobey orders from an authority figure: 'We have to teach children to obey, but we must also teach them to disobey.'
One would like to think that Christians would be among the 'relatively few' who are able to resist authority when that authority goes against our moral instincts. But perhaps that is only true for those who take seriously the moral authority of scripture? What do you think – do we really need to teach disobedience and rebellion?
My personal experience (in situations where an authority figure is behaving badly or wants me to behave badly) is that belief in the moral authority of scripture is very helpful but not always sufficient. Sometimes I have given in and sometimes I have resisted. Where I have resisted it has been either because I have previously thought through the issue and come to a conclusion or else simple anger has driven me. And yes, I think children should be taught not to disobey but as Christians to recognise the higher authority of God's word and to obey that when it conflicts with human authority on important issues. We do need to explore how that conditional obedience works out in everyday life so that people can wisely "disobey."
Peter OHalloran 23 March 2010