A Final Contemplation

What I have learned most through this class is to make sure that any action you take needs to always be backed up by conscious thought. In the Milgram experiments, we saw how normal, everyday people were able to cause what they thought was serious physical harm to another human being, simply because they were told to do it. If you had instead taken a survey of those same people, asking them if they would administer a severe electric shock to a man who is screaming in pain, I have no doubt that they would have said no. If the people who watched idly by as Kitty Genovese was brutally murdered in New York City were asked beforehand what they would have done, they would have told you they would have intervened. But in real-life scenarios, our idealized thoughts don't always translate to physical action. In this class, it has become abundantly clear to me that if I were put in a similar situation, I really don't know how I would react. Would I deliver the shock? Would I stand by and watch a murder from the window? I hope that if now, after going through this class and learning all we have learned about, that in that situation I would be aware enough to really think about the consequences of my action or inaction, and make a decision based on what I feel is right, and a decision that I won't regret.