The Disappearance Of A Sense Of Responsibility

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.

Obedience Is The Psychological Mechanism That Links Individual Action To Political Purpose. It Is The Dispositional Cement That Binds Men To Systems Of Authority.

For A Person To Feel Responsible For His Actions, He Must Sense That The Behavior Has Flowed From The Self.

But The Culture Has Failed, Almost Entirely, In Inculcating Internal Controls On Actions That Have Their Origin In Authority. For This Reason, The Latter Constitutes A Far Greater Danger To Human Survival.

It Is Not So Much The Kind Of Person A Man Is As The Kind Of Situation In Which He Finds Himself That Determines How He Will Act.