Letters to the Editor
-
Disconnect between Personal Conscience and Obeying Authority
Andrew O'Hehir has provided powerful commentary concerning the film
"Standard Operating Procedure." Just how did the United States become involved in this torture? Our citizens want a pass, and to accept the earlier governmental claim it was just a few bad apples.
Well the truth has been revealed the top echelons of this administration including the Vice President Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfield,Colon Powell, Condi Rice and others gave specific orders to those below on just how to conduct this torture. Our citizens collective view of our actions
in Iraq is out of synchronization with our national behavior. "The greatest nation in the world just couldn't allow torture." Well put on your thinking cap what would you call the public lynching of AfrIcan Americans which included torture, accompanied by both pre and post mortem mutilation and carried out by crowds of U.S. citizens. The lynch law in the South lasted from the mid-19th to the mid-20th centuries. Don't we ever look at that, and say what kind of people are we to allow that to happen? Have we lost our capacity to feel, think, and do ? In 1963 Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram conducted a series of experiments which measured the willingness of those who took part in his study to obey an authority figure even though those acts conflicted with their personal conscience. These experiments are described in depth in his 1974 book Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View.
I intend on seeing Errol Morris's film "Standard Operating Procedure," We need to focus on what is wrong with this country, and do something about it. It is my view that we are on a slippery slop to fascism. That destination is not going to be easily reversed. In advance of seeing the film I thank Errol Morris for the film, and thanks to Salon for the outstanding commentary. Perhaps our nation stands a chance if it will wake up!