On Power and Groups

I've always been more or less a loner. I'm not sure why; the complex chemicals in my head misfiring, childhood in a rural area where quiet is more valued, differences in ability in school, or something else, perhaps. For those of you who know Myers Briggs, I test I (Introvert) by margins of about 26 to 3, or 9 to 1 on the short form. So perhaps this page, with my writings on power, groups, and voluntary submission, formed out of unfamiliarity. In that case, I'm the Jane Goodall of small groups.

A better reason, I think, comes from my definition of what I should do, numerical crusader. I have few misconceptions about my limited capacity to improve life on Earth through my path, studying and documenting processes so they can be improved. Sociology, the study of social structures and human response, feels like the best fit. Sure, I use statistical techniques to get there, but this likely is my true path, which I hope is correct. Perhaps I'm filling the earth and subduing it (Genesis 1:28) by quantifying it? Perhaps I'm helping someone find a better way to distribute food or support people out of alcoholism or provide justice in Guatemala? Or perhaps I'm just aiding nasty corporations? I need to be hopeful.

Drinking the Koolaid: Destructive Groups

First, about the famous phrase, which arises from the story of Jonestown. Like many things, it's a rich and complicated tale, involving a man named Jim Jones, his organization called the People's Temple, a rise and connections with the mayor of San Francisco, and paranoia and the move to a willing Guyana. After several complaints, the arrival of a Congressman to investigate lead to desparate measures. Congressman Ryan was murdered, and a previously practiced suicide plan was set in motion; part of this plan involved drinking Kool-Aid laced with cyanide. About 900 people died in Jonestown; it's unclear how many volunteered and how many were shot, but in all estimates, at least 300 drank. The phrase was adopted to mean following a charismatic leader to great lengths, even catastrophic ones. If you'd like more information, the site I like is out of San Diego State, available here. There's less sensationalism than many others.

The definitions of "brainwashing", "destructive group" and "cult" are heavily debated. The most generally accepted source seems to be Robert Lifton's Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism, which describes a process of gradual breakdown and guidance for brainwashing. For definitions of cults, I'll refer you to an article reproducing Robert Lifton for starters. You can also try a different definition list, BITE, over here. I don't agree with all the conclusions on these sites, but their definitions are well put.

Although we often think of destructive groups as led by hellraising charismatic men, that's not always the case. Amway, for instance, is a multilevel marketing group with many cult characteristics. More established churches have their movements too. Freedom of Mind has good starter pages on Amway and Opus Dei of the Catholic Church. When I get a chance, I'll enter an old Washington Post article on Mother of God, a Catholic-based cult based out of Maryland; they used to have a link, but it seems lost.

The Banality of Evil

It's easy for us to look at the People's Temple and claim that we would never sink to that level of thought control. Similarly, it's easy for us to think that normal citizens would never harm other people, like Germans did to Jews and others during World War II. Unfortunately, that's not the case. "Never again" is not true. There's Cambodia of Pol Pot, Rwanda/Burundi of 1994.

In terms of the seminal event, the Shoah, I recommend The Complete Maus, by Art Spiegelman. Surprisingly, the cartoon format worsens the experience in some ways, by bringing some picture to our eyes. It also covers the period before the war, for background. There are, of course, many other sources, and a quick search will get you those. Fictionally, the seminal works are Huxley's Brave New World and Orwell's 1984, and I would say we move closer to the first than the second. Everybody's happy now, right?

Obedience to Authority

So let's look closer, at ourselves. The most important book in this regard is Obedience to Authority, by Stanley Milgram in the late 1960s. The ISBN is 006131983X, and you should be able to buy one in any college bookstore. I strongly recommend you do! This thin book describes an experiment in New Haven, Connecticut, in the 1960s, where subjects were instructed to administer shocks of increasing severity as punishment for wrong answers in a word matching game. The victim expressed more and more agony, eventually screaming and falling silent. The shocks were labeled up to 450 volts, a very painful level, with In a survey, psychiatrists predicted 99.9 percent defiance of the experimenter, refusing to complete the experiment. Actually? About 35 percent defiance. Even when the subject had to physically place the hand on the shock place, 30 percent administered a basically deadly shock. This book uses Statistics at its finest. It terrifies me, through and through, not least because I can't be sure of my defiance.

Perhaps you write off Milgram's work as experimental, not actual evil. So you believe we have no malevolent authority? Try Unspeakable Acts, Ordinary People, ISBN 0679419187, by John Conroy. It contains three case studies of torture from "civilized" nations, not just experiments: British in Northern Ireland, Israel (torture was accepted in interrogations in Israel until 1999), and Chicago, my residence. It's not a book for the squeamish, and the endings are not just. You might also read about My Lai or other events of Vietnam. Remember, in these events, I assign as much responsibility to the supervisors, those who could have stepped in but didn't, as to the conductors. Perhaps more.

Thankfully for my conscience, not all my thoughts on this subject deal with genocide and torture. I also look at common groups, forming social capital. I just finished Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone and will post a review. It's a very important text. Then, I'll do some more.

Updated December 2002.