It Is Not So Much The Kind

And Perhaps Our Awareness Is The First Step To Our Liberation.

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.

It Is Easy To Ignore Responsibility When One Is Only An Intermediate Link In A Chain Of Action.

The Essence In Obedience Consists In The Fact That A Person Comes To View Himself As An Instrument For Carrying Out Another Person's Wishes And He Therefore No Longer Regards Himself As Responsible For His Actions.

Although A Person Acting Under Authority Performs Actions That Seem To Violate Standards Of Conscience, It Would Not Be True To Say That He Loses His Moral Sense. Instead, It Acquires A Radically Different Focus. He Does Not Respond With A Moral Sentiment To The Actions He Performs. Rather, His Moral Concern Now Shifts To A Consideration Of How Well He Is Living Up To The Expectations That The Authority Has Of Him.