Jad Abumrad

They're doing it because they think they ought to.

Suddenly I'm thinking this is actually a darker interpretation than the original.

It's absolutely darker.

Because they are doing it.

No question about it.

They have the agency.

Yep.

And they think it's right.

Although clearly on some level they know it isn't.

There's a sort of chilling comparison, which is a speech that Himmler gave to the SS, some SS leaders, when they were about to commit a range of atrocities.

He said, look, this is what you're going to do is, of course you don't want to do this, of course not.

Nobody wants to be killing other people.

We realize this is hard work.

But what you're doing is for the good of Germany.

And this is necessary in order to advance our noble cause.

Wow.

So in the Milgram case, the idea is that people will do bad if they think it's good, a good noble cause.

Well, what's the noble cause in this case?

This was exactly what was on my mind of the experiment.

If the experiment had to be successful, it had to be carried on.