On killing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

On killing - Essay Example Grossman has utilized Milgram’s experiment of obedience as his research base. According to Milgram’s findings, humans obey authority and inflict pain on the subject without the rational evidence, but only due to obligatory requirement. Thus, Freud’s intuitive theory of human nature contradicts with this dichotomy, which emphasis that undue submission and pressure by authority evokes rebelliousness in the subordinates (Grossman, p.142). The author also lays an emphasis on the dichotomy of human intrinsic defence mechanism; this enables individuals to either fight for their survival in a threatening environment or escape from it, which is either due to fear or strategic aversion of killing another human being (Ibid, p.143). Another unanticipated fact about killing in a war is that without a leader’s direction, soldiers often feel without a sense of direction. Hence, become incapable of determining their own action, which shows the abrupt nature of humans to require authority, set path for direction and specific guidelines to react or respond in certain situations (Ibid, p.145). Leaders possess or influence subordinates in both physiological and psychological manner. Their presence can persuade subordinates to act in the most violate manner and can also impede them from violation. The repute of a leader or authority, the nature of demand of killing from the authority and authenticity of leader’s command act as the sound and rational bases for a subordinate to follow the commandment of a leader without consolidating it with his own belief or values (ibid, p.145). In addition, the author has also signified the importance of posture and submission process along with killing or fleeing mechanism in the time of war or life threatening situation. The hostility of a being is detected through its basic nature, posture or level of fear. Thus, one can determine that a baboon and rooster do not tend to attack