the current light shed on the human rights violations being inflicted upon migrant children and asylum seekers has me thinking about an old experiment and some studies that focus on the core issues with separating young children from parents and obedience to authority

In July of 1961 a Yale professor, Stanley Milgram, was still reeling from the atrocities of the holocaust and curious about how seemingly decent humans could turn on their neighbors with such depraved indifference. He designed an expiriment to try to explain the phenomenon.

the study was published in 1963 in The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology. His book “Obedience to Authority” was published in 1974.

Milgram showed the world how “just doing my job, sir” was a dangerous belief pattern held by educated people in developed countries.