Obscura! Obscura!

     In the second chapter of Lauren Slater's Opening Skinner's Box she explores the ethically questionable shock experiments of Stanley Milgram. He used ordinary people, taking volunteers off of the street, and two actors to complete his experiments. One actor would get strapped into an electric chair while the unknowing volunteer was put in another room with a generator with different voltage options for shocking on it. The other actor was dressed as a doctor, giving instructions to the volunteers.The volunteers were then told to say four word series to the man strapped into the electric chair; every time he got a question wrong, he or she was to shock him with increasing voltages. The volunteers were instructed not to stop, no matter what. Milgram was doing an obedience experiment; he wanted to find out just how far ordinary people would go when instructed to by a professional-looking man. 

     Sixty five per cent of people in this experiment were obedient until the man in the electric chair was no longer able to say anything and they were instructed to stop. The volunteers thought they had killed the man, yet they kept shocking him purely because a man in a professional-looking white coat instructed them to. At first I was disgusted by this; how could people not stop? Why did they stay so obedient? Then I started applying this to my own life and realized, no matter how awful it is, I would have stayed obedient until the end, also. I have always done whatever professionals have asked of me. From doctors to teachers to my parents, I have never been a defiant person. I always do exactly as I'm told. Therefore, I would have shocked that man until I thought he was dead. Afterwards, I know I would suffer mentally because of this, yet I am absolutely positive I would have been one of the obedient people in this experiment. 
     This has made me realize that maybe I need to take more control of my life. I know I am a fairly independent person, yet I also realize I will do whatever people above me tell me to. Most of the time, this is a good thing. I do not get in trouble in school, at home, or anywhere else. There are some situations, though, that I should probably take my own initiative in. It seems that this all boils down to my hate of decision making. I will not make any sort of decision unless I absolutely have to, so, I just follow others' instruction. I need to push myself to be less submissive. Luckily, I realize this and that's the first step in changing anything, right?