Who is to Blame for Atrocities? ; An Analysis of Obedience to Authority

The term “concentration camp” conveys a certain discomfort among all peoples, but par- ticularly among Americans. We like to think that we live in the land of freedom and opportunity. However, the current administration’s anti-immigration stance has exasperated the use of inhumane detention centers to hold “illegal immigrants.” In these camps, people are kept in dehumanizing conditions. They exist in a legal grey zone; neither being able to legally apply for asylum, nor satisfy the requirements needed for deportation. Most tragically of all, however, is the treatment of children who are separated from their parents by the United States government. While Milgram’s experiment would suggest that the blame for atrocities should be concentrated at the top of the chain of authority due to humans’ natural tendency to obey perceived authority, one could argue that maliciousness can be found lower down as well. The question is, is the persistence of maliciousness among ordinary American citizens their own fault, or is the government implicated in the cultivation of the racist beliefs held by those who obey it? What is particularly interesting is the adaptation of Milgram’s experiment on obedience to authority which focuses on participants who were not asked to directly administer shocks to the perceived “learners.” In this variation, participants were far more likely to continue through to the end of the experiment than if they had been told to physically administer the shocks. This shows that the further up the chain of authority one rises, the more emotionally removed from the process they become. This certainly would explain the perceived banality among high officials, such as Adolf Eichmann in Nazi Germany, who seemed cold and callous despite the atrocities they indeed facilitated. On the other hand, it suggests that those at the very bottom must ei- ther previously hold or through their work attain biases which influence their actions. It’s easy enough for The President to administer orders, yet he is utilizing the hatred and underlying biases of ordinary citizens. Thus, it is in the leader’s best interest to encourage the spread of racist stereotypes and false information. This is where the blame once again must be shifted to the top of the ladder. A key element in the abuse of power is the spread of propaganda to encourage a population to hold the racist beliefs that justify their actions unto themselves. This is where propaganda plays a major role in perpetuating conditions required to fully achieve the goals of those in power. In Nazi Germany, Hitler was able to build off of existing antisemitism, even borrowing laws and policies from as far back as medieval Europe to enforce underlying prejudices. For instance, Ghettos were far from a new concept when it came to systematic anti-semitism. Jewish people had been forced into Ghettos before, both legally and by social alienation. Since anti-Semitic sentiments were far from new to the German citizens, Hitler’s propaganda seemingly made sense to many Germans. Thus, German citizens who entered into the Nazi military were already equipped with the racist notions needed to justify any orders that they would be asked to carry out. It is much easier to abuse a human that you believe is an “evil rat” than it is to abuse a human that you believe did not in any way deserve unjust treatment. This is not unlike the way that Donald Trump has re-kindled anti-immigration sentiments that have existed in The United States far before Trump seized power in 2016. Every wave of immigrants, even white immigrants from countries like Ireland, Italy, and Poland, was socially ostracized and discriminated against for decades before assimilating into American culture. Furthermore, Trump was able to play off of America’s long-standing “War On Drugs,” capitalizing on the notion that immigrants from Mexico (as well as the rest of Central/South America) are as- sociated with the use and dealing of illegal substances such as marijuana and cocaine. Another group that Trump rails against is immigrants from Muslim-majority nations. Since 9/11, Americans have been encouraged by the government to fear “radical Islamic terrorism,” and consequentially fear Muslims as being inherently violent. By associating these groups of immigrants with crime and terror, Trump has been able to play off of the existing fears held by many Americans. He himself propagates these racist notions, which his followers internalize. He reinforces the underlying prejudices that are needed for those working in, for example, internment camps to abuse innocent people (even children), because to them these asylum seekers are criminals, thus deserving of poor treatment. Recently, America witnessed the full extent of the combination of propaganda and an ap- peal to Trump’s authority when Kyle Rittenhouse crossed state lines with an illegal firearm to “protect property” in Kenosha, WI. The young man, 17, shot and killed two people. A review of his personal life before these events revealed that he is a staunch Trump-supporter, who likely bought into all the lies that the White House and the President propagate about the true intents and motivations of the BLM protestors, as well as the lies perpetuated that “Antifa” is a violent Anti-American terrorist organization. Despite 93% of BLM protests being peaceful, and despite the fact that Antifa is by no means an official organization of any sort, this young man was radi- calized to believe that they were deserving of the vile acts he sought out to commit. More con- cerning, however, is the vast number of the president’s supporters who see no issue with what has taken place. Tucker Carlson received backlash from many on The Left for suggesting that we shouldn’t be surprised that Rittenhouse took it upon himself to “maintain order,” as no one else was doing so. John Oliver pointed out, quite astutely, that “a 17-year-old with a rifle is the definition of disorder.” This all conveys the terrifying realization that many American citizens would be capable of utilizing their racist misconceptions to obey Trump’s orders, even if they’re only perceived. This all leads us back to the concentration camps at the border. While there is a case to be made that many of the actions taken by government officials to facilitate the continued abuse of migrants and asylum seekers are explained purely by a natural human tendency to obey authority, one cannot ignore the fact that the environment under which this is all taking place has been heavily tailored by the current administration’s propaganda. The Milgram experiment was performed in a vacuum, where the subject did not have any biases towards the “learner.” However, in reality, we cannot isolate natural tendencies to obey authority from mitigating circumstances that may perpetuate and encourage malicious behaviors. Although, it can be argued that this does not conflict entirely with the results of Milgram’s experiment; those being the implication that blame must be shifted primarily to the top of the authority ladder. The fact that the social climate of America is heavily influenced by government propaganda does indeed implicate those in power of ultimate responsibility for their egregious actions. Perhaps the most common excuse given by ex-Nazis was this: “I was just following orders.” This was, after all, the excuse given by Adolf Eichmann at his trial in Jerusalem. However, as Hanna Arendt was sure to note, the fact that he was able to be so benign yet act so evil was only more terrifying than if he had been a raging anti-semite or the like. We has humans have a tendency to categorize evil as something we can easily point out. We imagine evil to manifest itself as powerful, hate-filled monsters rearing their heads at those whom they oppose. And yet, we see that evil can indeed manifest itself in seemingly benign individuals. The greater con- cern here is that the power of perceived authority often overrides the greater good. With this in mind, I’m not particularly interested in demonizing the individuals involved in this system, rather the focus should ideally be put on raising awareness of humans’ natural tendencies and addressing them humanistically