Life lacks a clear line in the sand that spells out where the limits are. People must figure that out themselves and, often, it is difficult to do so. The difficulty lies in the fear of being wrong and no one wants to own up to their errors. So, on a deep level, authority is comforting. It gives people someone to rely on, someone to take orders from, and someone to place blame onto. The Milgram experiment is the most obvious indicator of how authority influences the actions of people. It is jointly fascinating and yet terrifying how far participants will take their actions- if they believe that the figure of authority will cover them. The limits of authority should ethically stop at the point where others will get unjustly treated. A fair argument to lay out is- how do we know that our own judgement is better than our supposed superiors? A main source of tension for participants within the Milgram experiment is that they were anxious at the absence of knowledge that they believed they held. It seems that the …show more content…
This almost compares to a scene within “The Measure of a Man” where Picard asks Riker to become the prosecutor. In the lose situations, either he agrees to this arrangement and wins the case, in which his great offensive skills would be the sole reason why Data is deemed property of Starfleet, or he refuses to even try the case and Data automatically loses. Riker allowed his superior to persuade him into an action that he was very uncomfortable with. This is different compared to the Milgram scenario because, although it upset Riker to throw insults and barrage Data with inhumane attention, it was pertinent that the case be tried out in court for the future of all androids. This draws the question of listening to authority even when it hurts someone for the good of science or the result in