Have we all forgotten the Milgrim experiments? (For a really quick refresher, you might try Milgrim <http://www.new-life.net/milgram.htm> (http://www.new-life.net/milgram.htm). Enjoy!
Barry
Ed Weick wrote:
From Adolph Eichmanns closing statement:
My life's principle, which I was taught very early on, was to desire and to strive to achieve ethical values. >From a particular moment on, however, I was prevented by the State from living according to this principle. I had to switch from the unity of ethics to one of multiple morals. I had to yield to the inversion of values which was prescribed by the State.
Just doin' my job suh, just doin' my job. It was the boss, suh, not me.
I only know about Eichmann what I've read in newspaper articles and such. Eichmann has become a symbol of the person who exculpates themself by saying they were just following orders even though, as in his case, they were relatively highly placed.
The quote does not sound to me quite so "simple". It sounds to me more like Eichmann was childreared to be "good" in an environment where goodness was defined in terms of obeying the values of the persons in authority (initially one's parents). Had he been on *our* side, he would, at worst, have had a successful career, and perhaps have received some public recognition of his good service to the values we hold dear. I can posibly imagine Abraham saying something similar when ordered to kill his son Isaac, had he been brought before some tribunal.
I don't have a pithy "moral" to draw from this. And maybe Eichmann really thought "Just doin' my job suh", but that is not exactly what the quote seems to me to say. The words say the man believes he has a conscience and that he tried to live acording to it.
Well, maybe here's one "moral" to draw: Darned lucky persons don't often get put in a position similar to Eichmann's. But managers (teachers and other persons in positions of authority) often, I think, do things to those over whom they have power, that are less than decent.
I find Eichmann's articulation of his position scary. I also find scary those who are less articulate but not less at risk for doing bad things if put in a bad situation. I also am concerned that, the way articulate discourse is deployed very eloquently and seemingly cogently (or, as in postmodernism, incomprehensibly...) for causes that may not be so good, in our time, it is harderfor us to tell what is good and what is not good than if "we" didn't do such a good job of defending some pretty bad things in such areas as treatment of employees, students, and other persons in positions of powerlesness.
Just like with "911" and similar incidents, I think we should invest a lot of our efforts in seeing how conditions we take to be normal and OK contributed to enabling the catstrophe to happen to us.
\brad mccormick
--
Let your light so shine before men,
that they may see your good works.... (Matt 5:16)Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21)
<![%THINK;[SGML+APL]]> Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----------------------------------------------------------------- Visit my website ==> http://www.users.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/
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