French Show *Game Of Death*
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It was meant to be about the manipulative power of authority, the control of television, and the twisted nature of reality shows. It was that and then some.
Television producers in France mocked up a game show. Contestants were posed questions. If a contestant answered the question wrong, he or she would be commanded to throw a switch, zapping a fellow contestant (literally) on the hot seat.
The victim in the hot seat appeared to get hit with up to 420 volts electricity.
All the while the audience shouted “punish them!”
The contestants and audience are real. They think the game is real. But the fellow on that “hot seat” is an actor faking it…quite well. He sounds like he is close to the point of dying.
While some of the contestants said "no," that they would not electrocute the person in the hot seat, 82 percent contestants went along.
The show's producers defend the program, part of a documentary dubbed “The Game of Death.” They note it’s simply an update of a psychological experiment 50 years ago.
But the French are taken aback. Top French commentator Christian Mallard told Fox it was “stupid and crazy.”
French newspapers dubbed it “bothering” and “unethical.”
The program is actually running on French government-owned TV. There’s no word on what President Sarkozy might think about it.
French Show Game Of Death
Check out the video and I hope this game doesn't catch on and make it over here. Does this comes down to making money on a game show beats out apparently inflicting pain on another human?
Peace
*We CAN bomb the World to pieces, but we CAN'T bomb it into PEACE*...Michael Franti
*MUSIC IS the expression of EMOTION.....and that POLITICS IS merely the DECOY of PERCEPTION*
.....song_Music & Politics....Michael Franti
*The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite INSANE*....Nikola Tesla(a man who shaped our world of electricity with his futuristic inventions)
*MUSIC IS the expression of EMOTION.....and that POLITICS IS merely the DECOY of PERCEPTION*
.....song_Music & Politics....Michael Franti
*The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite INSANE*....Nikola Tesla(a man who shaped our world of electricity with his futuristic inventions)
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Comments
They refer to the infamous Milgram-experiment in 1961. Back then it was some 60 % of the contestants that were ready to "punish". In the French show it was about 80%. Just frightening. Is this really human nature?
well ... it can't make it on because the gig is up ...
in any case - i think it is a good insight into the fabric of society ...
I just did a paper on that experiment last year. It's really incredible what people are willing to do to each other when they have someone they consider an authority figure or an expert demanding they do it. My paper tied that in to what happened at Abu Ghraib as an example. Nobody ever thinks before an experiment like this that they'd be the type of person to do something like that. Some of the participants of Milgram's study needed therapy afterward.
They also did a follow-up experiment where they slightly removed the authority figure - i.e.; they received their instructions over the phone or from another room - and the percentage of people willing to follow through dropped way down. You just need to give people a little room and time to think and squirrel up some courage