Ordinary people; extraordinary obedience

  
  Ordinary people, simply doing their jobs, and without any particular hostility on their part, can become agents in a terrible destructive process. Moreover, 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" (Milgram, 1974) 

   Milgram's experiment attempts to explain why reasonable people do unreasonable, irrational things when instructed by an authority. Would we, ordinary people, doing their jobs, and without any particular hostility on our part, kill thousands of people in a war situation? Especially if prodded by a charismatic leader? Milgram says yes, there is a good chance that we'll end up doing things beyond our imagination if ordered by someone in authority.  

  Although obedience to authority is a watered down answer to how leaders managed to persuade followers to perform heinous crimes without an iota of guilt, the hard question remains why would someone consider such leaders as an authority? How did such leaders manage to prevent an internal uprising among educated individuals?

 A German movie, The wave has some interesting answers to questions on authority and autocratic leadership. Although the leader is the initiator of a movement, the followers are the ones who keeps it alive, they are the ones who make the thought of a leader into a full fledged movement. 

  Just like the greed of the leader, the followers become addicted to the movement, they believe that the movement is bigger than them, and they begin to identify themselves as a part of an elite group focused on a unique goal. In the process, they lose their own identity - they are thinking for the group - they are more worried about the so-called greater good than themselves.  

   In fact, we don't have to travel back to the past. There is no dearth of charismatic leaders’ closer home, occupying the front pages of national newspapers and primetime hours of the TRP hungry TV channels. How did they achieve such strong followers even while their leadership style is far from the ideals of democracy? 

  Will we do it again if there is another audacious authority? You mock me; you think such audacious authorities are a thing of the past. Wait for a moment, think about this. 

  History is full of repetitions, full of charismatic leaders, who thought they were entitled to everything, who thought greed was natural, but none of them lived forever, they fell for their own charm. They may be long dead but their crimes still lives in the pages of history books; some printed, some never printed. Some proven, some unproven. 

   The obedience to authority, unswerving obedience to authority has stood the test of time, and nothing has happened in the recent past to indicate a different future.