In today’s episode of The Recombobulator Lab, Chris and Jason have the pleasure of having the knowledgeable Doug Keene on the show, who is a third-time guest in the Lab. Doug, a former clinical psychologist and an epic trial consultant, will discuss authoritarianism in this episode, including studies done over the years to support it and its positive and negative impacts.
Authoritarianism is the process and exchange where there is essentially a strong leader and a subject that will be expected to comply with the instructions or guidance of the strong leader. Authoritarianism is not purely political. There are lots and lots of circumstances where people either turn toward or against authoritarian leadership. It could be in religion or it's how children are parented. In general, Doug says, people may look toward authoritarian solutions when they're scared.
In the 60s’, American social psychologist Stanley Milgram conducted research on how far people would go to comply with authority figures' commands. A researcher instructed the participants to shock a different person with electric shocks that got stronger. Two-thirds of the subjects were willing to continue shocking them even after they stopped responding. This was horrifying to Milgram, who had expected 3% or 4%, somewhere in that range. The participants were unaware that the shocks were phony and that the person receiving them was an actor.
Doug thinks American Individualism is a a form of autocracy.
The idea being that "The cultural and environmental bath we have been stewing in from birth just makes us singularly qualified to accomplish great things and representative of all things good, which is incredibly autocratic."
Doug would do away with fake news and the alternative realities people are trying to spin up, creating constant anxiety and fear. It's really important that people monitor the way it's affecting them and the degree to which they expose themselves to fake news, making sure it gets balanced and counterweighted with things that are authentically loving and genuine.
