Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.
For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.
Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.
For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
~ Jer 17:5-9
Have you ever heard of the Milgram Experiment? I had not until the other day. The above verse came to mind almost immediately.
Are we really more enlightened than we used to be? Is barbarism dead?
By 1961, you would think we would have learned the lessons of WWII. However, it would appear that maybe not. Psychologist Stanley Milgram wanted to know the answer to the question: “Could it be that Eichmann and his million accomplices in the Holocaust were just following orders? Could we call them all accomplices?”
His experiment was to hook up a person to answer questions to a device that would deliver electrical shocks. The subject was placed in another room but close enough to hear the person being questioned. The subject would ask the questions and press a button to deliver shocks whenever an incorrect answer was given. The subject was told that each succeeding shock would increase in intensity. In reality, the person being questioned did not receive any shocks at all but would make increasing loud sounds and then screams each time they were “shocked”. The “learner” would even start to bang on the walls and complain of his heart condition at a certain point.
Only one refused to administer a potentially lethal voltage of shock.
Again, are we today more “enlightened”? Replications of this experiment yield that even with the subject and “learner” in the same room, 30% will still follow through on obeying orders.
We need God’s Holy Spirit to guide us, or we all are doomed.