After Backing Saudi Crown Prince And “Vicious” World Tweet, How Would Trump Score On The Milligram Test?

Despite having evidence that the Saudi crown prince directly ordered the dismemberment and murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, President Donald Trump tweeted: “Maybe the world should be held accountable, because the world is a vicious place. The world is a very, very vicious place.” Putting aside his argument that the Saudis were great allies and Israel couldn’t exist without them, or that they created American jobs and kept the price of gas low, one has to wonder how he would score on the Milligram Scale. If he too had been tested in Stanley Milligram’s 1974 experiment on obedience and authoritarianism.

Creative Cruelty Or Altruistic Awareness
One has to also ask if he would’ve been more like the Mr. Batta, who displayed indifference, or the generous Mr. Rensaaler. Indeed, and where many recall how Stanley Milligram found that most Americans would torture people if ordered to do so, even killing them with the maximum voltage of shock if a strong authority pressured them to do so, few remember the others who were either more than pleased to torture and kill or protested and stopped right away. Consequently, human beings are never simply passive objects. Situations and systems do matter, as do their cultural values and practices.

But before discussing how each volunteer experimenter was introduced to a ‘learner’ who was strapped into an electric chair, there were several like Mr. Batta who displayed alarming behavior. Not only did he apply additional electric shock without being asked to do so, but he seemed to take pleasure in the learner’s suffering, pleased at times to have power over his victim. This led Stanley Milligram to write: “What is extraordinary is his apparent indifference to the learner: he hardly takes cognizance of him as a human being. Meanwhile he relates to the controller in a submissive and courteous fashion.”(1)

Yet there were others like Mr. Rensaaler, albeit very few of them. He presumably had experienced the rise of Nazism and German occupation of the Netherlands during World War II. Although he obeyed the controller until he reached the 255-volt level, when told he had to continue because he had no choice, he responded with protest. In fact, he indignantly said: “Why don’t I have a choice? I cam here of my own free will. I thought I could help in a research project. Bit if I have to hurt somebody to do that-I can’t continue. I am very sorry, I think I have gone too far already, probably.”(2)

Standard Submissiveness
Of course most experimenters were like Mr. Prozi. Even when the learners stopped crying out, and the experimenters were fearful they were unconscious or even dead, they still obeyed the commands of the controllers. Despite asking if their victims were dead or requesting the controllers to look in on the learners, they still applied the full amount of electric shock that would possibly kill the learner. This led Stanley Milligram to remark as well how even if the subjects thought they were causing pain and killing someone, they still acted like a submissive, whimpering child and obeyed the authority figure.

Although Stanly Milligram’s conclusions were related to his environment and upbringing, they unfortunately apply equally to all of us-including Donald Trump. To be sure, the kind of character produced in American democratic society cannot be counted on to insulate its citizens from brutality and inhumane treatment at the direction of a malevolent authority figure. The same goes for human rights in foreign policy matters, or protecting individuals like Jamal Khashoggi. A U.S. citizen who had worked for the Washington Post, his days were numbered after he had criticized the Saudi crown prince.

They were more so numbered after he criticized the president. Given that Donald Trump appears to be a double high authoritarian, he too will attack, eliminate or allow-one way or another-anyone he perceives to be a threat or questions his policies. He will also submit to others if it’s in his best-or business-interest to do so. Irrespective of the content of the act and without limitation of conscience, he’ll do what he’s told, so long as he perceives that command comes from a legitimate authority. In this case, the pressure came from Saudi Arabia and his many future business deals with the crown prince.

Vicious Worldview
But there’s another finding that Stanley Milligram made which demands our attention. Now known as Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA), and much like Mr. Batta, RWAs share a personality and ideological trait other than a high degree of submissiveness to authorities they perceive as legitimate. Like Donald Trump, they too have a negative view of the world as being a vicious place. This is what led to Mr. Batta’s Us-vs.-Them mentality and enthusiasm to punish his victim and please the controller. Sadly, and through coercion and uniformity, the stage had already been set for torture and murder.

Consequently, and after Donald Trump’s inaction towards Jamal Khashoggi’s murder and “The world is a nasty and vicious place” tweet, how would he score on the Milligram Scale?

Dallas Darling is the author of Politics 501: An A-Z Reading on Conscientious Political Thought and Action, Some Nations Above God: 52 Weekly Reflections On Modern-Day Imperialism, Militarism, And Consumerism in the Context of John’s Apocalyptic Vision, and The Other Side Of Christianity: Reflections on Faith, Politics, Spirituality, History, and Peace. He is a correspondent for www.WN.com. You can read more of Dallas’ writings at www.beverlydarling.com and www.WN.com/dallasdarling.

(1) Innes, Brian. The History of Torture. New York, New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998., p. 9.
(2) Ibid., p. 10.