I believe that you would be surprised at how many people "will go way over the
top".

I am reminded of Stanley Milgram's psychology experiment performed in 1963.
People were paired up and one individual was considered to be a "learner" and
the other was considered to be the "teacher". The "learner" had a set of tasks
to master and the "teacher" had to present the stimuli, record answers and to
administer punishment when the "learner" made mistakes. The "learner was
strapped into a chair and had shock electrodes attached and the "teacher" got
to sit in front of the shock generator. The shock generator had 30 levers and
each lever increased the electrical shock from the proceeding lever (from 15
to 450 volts). Written descriptions were below most of the switches and
included things like "Slight Shock" to "Danger: Severe Shock" The last 2 had
"XXX" beneath them.

The "learner" was required to memorize a list and the "teacher" was instructed
to deliver a shock of increasing intensity (starting at 15 volts). Just to
make things a little fair prior to having the "teacher" administer punishment,
the "teacher" received a jolt of 45 volts. The "teacher" and "learner" weren't
into visual range of each other but could hear each other over an intercom
system.

No real shocks were delivered to the "learner" (an actor) who was cued to give
responses to the various levels of "shocks" that the "teacher" was supposed to
be delivering when the "learner" made a mistake. At 120 volts, he was supposed
to say that the shocks were too painful; at 150 volts, he was demanding to be
let out; at 180 volts, he was screaming that he couldn't take the pain; at 300
volts, there was only screaming; and, at 330 volts there was supposed to be
silence.

Most subjects would ask the experimenter what to do once it appeared that the
"learners" were in pain. The experimenter was instructed to tell the
"teachers" to continue with the experiment and that he would take full
responsibility and that the shocks wouldn't cause permanent damage.

The predictions were that 2% of the "teachers" would go to 450 volts. The
reality was that 65% of the "teachers" went to full shock intensity. In one
experiment, the "learner" even had to say that he suffered from a minor heart
ailment. This statement had no affect on the final outcome.

The "teachers" didn't bite the bullet and follow orders without some visible
signs that they were upset. Just the opposite, in fact. But they still obeyed
the experimenter!

And an atmosphere of fear certainly doesn't help the issue.

I agree that "out of the ordinary" is very relative (though I think that I
would be extremely amused to see "...the local church senior ladys quilting
group entering a topless-bar"). But I do think that in an atmosphere of fear
it is easy to start to believe that he "ordinary" starts to become "out of the
ordinary" without much justification.

Ever see the episode of the "Twilight Zone" where a group of aliens wants to
invade the Earth and they cause a series of power outages and strange events
to occur in one particular neighbourhood? In a very short period of time, the
people in the neighbourhood start to get upset and paranoid over each other
and the situation descends into anarchy.

Regards

John Barnard


{snippage}

To be sure, there are always, in any society, going to be some in the
citizenry who when asked to "do their part", will go way over the top with
it just as there are also those who will assume the worst possible effect
and intent. The rest of the citizenry, those who are neither paranoid nor
complacent, recognize it as a call to simply stay alert, be aware of your
immediate environment, and pay attention to things out of the oridinary.
If you see something out of the oridinary that concerns you, be an
effective witness and let someone know. "Out of the ordinary" is certainly
relative and most people recognize it when it occurs. Doesn't matter if
it's an intoxicated gang-banger strolling through an elementary school -
or the local church senior ladys quilting group entering a topless-bar.
Out of the ordinary catches alert people's attention. There's nothing
"sinister", repressive, over-reaching or irresponsible that I can see by
asking folks to stay alert and be ready to be an effective witness.

-=jd=-
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