The room sweat and smelt like a locker room. Therefore, it becomes necessary in some cases to manipulate and monopolise peoples confidence. Others cried openly and then brushed away tears to carry on. They would take the ridicule from the brighter students that participated in a measured and cautious way. Knowing that one is being monitored changes ones behaviour significantly. Evil becomes banal when ordinary people dont want to admit that they are implicated. They aren't bright, they can't make the athletic teams, and don't strike out for attention. "Yes.1' "Now listen carefully. Arrogance, violence, terror. By the end of the day over two hundred students were admitted into the order. Jones announced to the class that this movement was a part of a nationwide movement and that on the next day a presidential candidate of the Third Wave would announce its existence to the public. Jones was a teacher who usually granted his students a lot of leeway. This video is about the third wave experiment. Steve turns and gives a quiet salute. Must be a former student. Eyes strained and pulled at the light but the pattern didn't change. Simultaneous to this announcement over 1000 youth groups from every part of the country would stand up and display their support for such a movement. Where was this experiment leading? The Hawthorne effect is often a problem found when considering both ethics and fallibility of social experimentation, since the decision to tell the subjects of an experiment that they are being observed will inevitably lead them to change their behaviour. The experiment continued. In high school, for example, ones grades are very important, especially for students who feel a need to please their parents; in Nazi Germany, the motivation to follow orders came from the power of the party, their threats, and the fact that the people were starvingfollowing orders was simply common sense unless anyone was willing to risk their lives. Some would say he abused this confidence that the students had in him to play the tyrant, but, ultimately, he was still respected by the students and his colleagues even after the movement was exposed as a lie. He normally let them call him Ron, and was much respected, charismatic and popular. Very interesting experiment. A German documentary entitled The Invisible Line (Die Geschichte der Welle) debuted on television on December 19, 2019. Schoolteacher Ron Jones's personal account of his experiment which created a proto-fascist movement amongst his high school pupils in Palo Alto, California, which in 2008 was subject of the award-winning film The Wave. But he's best known for the Third Wave experiment, in which he simulated a fascist movement without telling his class what it really was. The trial was over. Conditions that produce tyranny could be the presence of an apparently legitimate authority, a certain motivational interest, and/or threats and manipulation. You said that Ron was lying. I waited for several minutes to let everyone catch up. May 14, 2022 Lauren Coontz. "Mr. Jones, why don't you teach like this all the time." The dedicated patience of a scientist in pursuit of an Idea. Many questions haunted me. It's raising a barn with your neighbors, it's feeling that you are a part of something beyond yourself, a movement, a team, La Raza, a cause. Class expanded from its initial 30 students to a total of 43. Students seemed intent on the assignment and displayed Accurate recitation of facts and concepts. It debuted October 4, 1981, and almost two years later as an ABC Afterschool Special.It starred Bruce Davison as the teacher Ben Ross, a character based on Jones. How could this be? This unethical experiment is one of many reasons review boards were created and have made drastic changes in policy over experiments done on humans. No one moved. ", "It's all set for tomorrow. Students who responded in a sluggish manner were reprimanded and in every case made to repeat their behavior until it was a model of punctuality and respect. We can bring it a new sense of order. And as predicted we also shared a deep secret. [9] Jones then assigned each of his students an individual assignment, such as designing a Third Wave banner, stopping non-members from entering the class, or recruiting their friends to join the movement. Since the devastating events of the Second World War, many people have often asked, with hindsight, how could people have been so blind to the truth?. I was following the group dictate as much as I was directing it. The tension and anticipation was beyond belief. Everything rests with you and your willingness to take a stand.". we each have witnessed something over the past week. You're walking down the street, eating at a secluded restaurant, or buying some underwear when all of a sudden an ex-student pops up to say hello. We knew that it was interesting learning about different political systems, but not something we would ever emulate. A general assembly was organised for 12 pm the next day to watch the televised speech of their leader. I explained why I acted and then assigned four guards to escort the women to the library and to restrain them from entering the class an Friday. I began to talk. Students were cutting class to participate and the school counselors were beginning to question every student in the class. Large numbers appeared in a countdown. Then it was time to part. The entire collection however looked like one force as they sat in perfect attention. Across the country teachers like myself have been recruiting and training a youth brigade capable of showing the nation a better society through discipline, community. It was easy. Juden, Kommunisten, Zigeuner, Schwarzethere were labels for people according to what kind of offence or threat they posed to the regime so that everyone would know their place in society. "It's over." The Third Wave experiment brought to light our creepy reverence for authority, shedding harrowing Milgram-esque insight into how easily we assuage moral conflict and diffuse responsibility when we . . I feel entirely compelled to say that any one that takes this as an offensive measure is possibly hiding something them self. This exercise in fascism took place in Palo Alto, California. To be right. I found myself sliding into the role even when it wasn't necessary. Edit: here is a video and post of Sherry Tousley describing the assembly in the gym on the last day among other things. As friends they chummed together. 2008 German film The Wave, based on these events, A first-hand account from the Chicago Teachers Union strike, from education worker Agnieszka Karoluk. Since we had a salute I made it a rule to salute all class members outside the classroom. Outright organised fascism is capitalism gone over the top, but manipulation of group dynamics happens all over the place - particularly in schools - and is the means used to get people to behave in required ways, absurd ways often but sometimes ways that are practically credible on the surface. Any% nazi speedrun. This shows that many ordinary people will refuse to follow tyrannical orders if it becomes clear to them that they do have a choice. Be seated. The Third Wave Experiment took place over five school days. For example, the theory that appeared after the Milgram experiment was that ordinary, good people, professionals and students alike would obey authority to the point that it could kill someone (up to 450V of electrical currentfar beyond that which can be sustained by a human being). You chose to accept that group's will and the big lie over your own conviction. By Thursday the class had swollen in size to over eighty students. Every word seemed to be taken and absorbed. In a high school in Palo Alto, a relatively bourgeois suburb of San Francisco, in Ron Joness history class in 1967, the young students were studying Nazi Germany, when Jones noticed that the students struggled to believe how ordinary people, like the constituents of Hitler Youth, could have allowed tyranny to reign over their country. In the beginning, the students treated the new regime as a game but became more serious once their teacher told them their marks were at stake. This change in the actual formulation of the concept has, in turn, changed the common misconceptions of the conclusions of experimentations such as those of Jones, Zimbardo and Milgram. Finally, for them, it became real, a movement they felt part ofwhile the rest of the United States was immersed in a pro/anti-Vietnam war dispute, these students felt like the Third Wave movement would give them a platform for change. "The first few days, the Third Wave was a game. The trance with the television continued for what seemed like hours. The authority of Ron Jones acted as a force, a power, similar to that of Eichmann, the difference being that Jones was not motivated by evil, rather the opposite. Ron Jones was a teacher at Cuubberly High School. tax collector. 1976 Ron Jones First Short Story "The Third Wave". The Wave is a made-for-TV movie directed by Alex Grasshoff, based on The Third Wave experiment put on by teacher Ron Jones to explain to his students how the German populace could accept the actions of the Nazi regime. To accepting the Third Wave as a way of life. When a student asks how so many people could be . They included . It also helps us understand further how the Holocaust could have happened. I was in pretty bad shape myself. Hold them tight. Replace reason with rules. Students were rewarded for making an effort at answering or asking questions. Or he is exaggerating, or what? Well, the Third Wave gave Robert a place in school. He added "Strength Through Community" to the chalk board, and named his "movement" "the Third Wave". So are you saying that what Ron says happened in the other class didn't really happen? Not knowing when and if you'd ever see each other again. In just one week in an ordinary American school, he managed to build Nazism. Yes, we would all have made good Germans. "This is the final lesson to be experienced. I graduated in 1967 and lost contact with Ron, But my mother worked at the school and kept me up to date as to what was going on with him. The white glow of the test pattern didn't snap into the vision of a political candidate. This lesson was the question that started our plunge in studying Nazi life. We have seen that fascism is not just something those other people did. Ordinary people will rationalise rather than be rational when they are in a threatening or difficult situation, in order to excuse themselves for being part of something that they fundamentally disagree with. Played guitar and enjoyed drama. Over two hundred students were crammed into the room. Strength through pride Things were already getting out of control. He seemed delighted and told me not to worry. I glanced over my shoulder. I confided that they were the students selected to represent their area. Each time the response was louder. I walked over to Robert and threw my arms around him. I began to think of myself as a part of the experiment. Following minutes of progressive drill assignments the class could move from standing positions outside the room to attention sitting positions at their desks without making a sound. The Third Wave had become the center of their existence. As Jones (1979, pp. To avoid the Hawthorne effect, Milgram told the volunteers that the subject was, in fact, the learner behind the screen, and not themselves. The balance between role playing and directed behavior became indistinguishable. No. I took the film from the three cameras in the room and pulled the celluloid into the exposing light. Jones instructed the students on how to initiate new members. What does he do now (or after he was fired)? Jones intended only a one-day experiment.[9]. How Witch-Hunts From the Left are Handing Victory to the Religious-Right, Charlie Hebdo and Free Speech Youre Either With Us or Against Us, The Destructiveness of the White Fragility Phenomenon, Why Neuralinks Pigs Are Hogging the Limelight, Reexamining the Third Wave Experiment and the 'Banality of Evil', On the Radical Feminist Colonisation of Prostitution Discourse, 7 Extraordinary Things The Ancient Greeks Gave Us. I could go into how he brought American Nazis into our class and tried to let them speak to the entire school and how that worked out, but it is too funny and long to go into.Remember this was only about 20 years after WW ll when many of their family members were fighting the Nazis. Ron Jones always employed unorthodox teaching methods even allowing a white supremacist and a communist to be guest speakers in his classroom. His students where attached to the order. Jones?" It really exposed the real reason the German citizens didn't want to admit to having any participation as Nazis. They watched the activities and participated in a mechanical fashion. But most of the students looked straight ahead in earnest concentration. The other option of just letting the experiment run its course was also out of the question. On Friday, the final day of the exercise, I spent the early morning preparing the auditorium for the rally. To give validity to the seriousness of my words I turned to the three women in the class whom I knew had questioned the Third Wave. I now began to ponder not just how far this class could be pushed but how such I would change my basic beliefs toward an open classroom and self directed learning. It's easier being a teacher. Manipulated. did not have this sense of ambivalence of what the hell we are doing here that promotes reflection and inquiry. Some of their faces were relaxed with smiles that come from pleasing the teacher. It was something we all wanted to forget. Motivations having been identified, it becomes easier to explain why tyrannical regimes can come to fruition and power. He then led them in shouting chants of "Strength through Discipline! In speed drills the class learned to move from standing position to attention sitting in fifteen seconds. I explained how discipline and community were meaningless without action. Take this story with a considerable grain of salt. As for my part in this exercise, I had nothing but questions. Given that assurance and smile I couldn't say no. Waiting. I have participated in similar experiments and also discovered the innate being inside is so easily manipulated due to a childlike want for approval and purpose being just the way they are. During the days of the experiment I was curious how they would respond to the equalitarian and physical reshaping of the class. In staccato words he pleaded that I understand and help him get home. Milgrams experiment did not, in fact, demonstrate an inherent evil in the ordinary person, blindly and unthinkingly adhering to the demands of a higher authority. We know the fear of being left out. Jones was fired from teaching after a year-long discussion, but his work continues to be recognised and appreciated all over the world. I can tell you and anyone else about the Third Wave. Adolf Eichmann, however, was no ordinary man. . The only thing that allowed them all to fit was the enforced discipline of sitting in silence at attention. Students showed increased academic skill and motivation. It affected everyone. I shared this silence with two hundred students. A strange calm is in effect when a room full of people sit in quite observation and anticipation. We practiced short "silent reading" sessions. It felt hard to breathe and even harder to talk. No psychological effects were reported, and his students even respected and revered him yet more for his unusual lessonhence the documentary was made by two former classmates. In focus drills I concentrated attention on the feet being parallel and flat, ankles locked, knees bent at ninety degree angles, hands flat and crossed against the back, spine straight, chin down, head forward. I just kept talking. They began to panic. You are no better or worse than the German Nazis we have been studying. That's right. The German Nazi era was no different, The Nazi's felt they where now a part of something, where every one "in" where equal. "Mr. Jones do you remember the Third Wave?" I was exhausted and worried. He was a sensitive and bright student. They are lost. How can a people be a part of something and then claim at the demise that they were not really involved' What causes people to blank out their own history? Take part. I wondered if this doesn't happen to lots of people. Although . The Third Wave. I decided to find out. Many students outside the class asked if they could join. While the class sat at attention I gave each person a card. The distinction is pertinent: why implies necessity, whereas the question how implies not necessity but rather by what mechanism the consequences came to be. Following my description of community I once again told the class that community like discipline must be experienced if it is to be understood. There must be a program. Can I do it Kr. If only he would have raged in anger or simply investigated the situation I could point the students to an example of righteous rebellion. Third Wave banners hung like clouds over the assembly. He smiled (I don't think I had ever seen him smile) and announced, "Mr. Jones I'm your bodyguard. Sort by: best. in fact I instructed the class in a sitting posture. "We can do it!" By the end of the day the movement had over 200 participants. A group photograph was taken. They were asked to read out questions to a student and whenever the student got a question wrong, the subjects were ordered to electrocute the student, increasing the force of the current gradually the more questions that they got wrong. Third Wave Experiment. You have been used. Kids were instructed in posture, began each remark with Mr. and saluted. Ron Jones himself was, at the time, part of the Black Panther movement which was a far-Left activist organisation that was strongly opposed to the Vietnam war and the US government. Students must be sitting in class at the attention position before the late bell; all students Must carry pencils and paper for note taking; when asking or answering questions a student must stand at the side of their desk; the first word given in answering or asking a question is "Mr. The trials. How can people who were neighbors and maybe even friends of the Jewish citizen say they weren't there when it happened. You are a selected group of young people chosen to help in this cause. You will keep this day and this rally a secret. I then said the words "Strength Through Discipline" followed by a repetitive chorus. It's not going to happen. The first day, the students acted almost as if it were a game and obeyed the commands of their teacher who they already trusted and respected. [1] Jones wrote a detailed recollection of the experiment some nine years afterward. The big lie. Soon the image is the only identity people will accept. His role playing spilled out of the class into all of the school. With Ron Jones, Philip Zimbardo, Scott Thomson, Sherry Tousley. We just stood there exchanging smiles when without a conscious command I raised my hand in curved position. Always we said them together, emphasizing the proper way to sit, stand, and talk. Where is their curiosity or resistance to this marshal behavior. The world misinterpreted her idea of the banality of evil; many believed that the phrase meant that within each of us there is evil and that the Nazi criminals were ordinary people simply following orders. Nothing. In 1967, a high school history class in California became the lab rats of an experiment to study the rise of Nazism. He said that he invented the term "The Third Wave" and the salute for it. In fact I was surprised to find the ideas on discipline enacted at all. I had a bodyguard. Then say goodbye. Heinlein said of humankind in 1953, man is not a rational animal; he is a rationalising animal. It's a bit of both isn't it? During the 1960s, Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram conducted a series of obedience experiments that led to some surprising results. The involvement level in the class moved from the few who always dominated discussions to the entire class. 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All set for tomorrow Story with a considerable grain of salt many reasons boards! Resistance to this marshal behavior all to fit was the enforced discipline of sitting in fifteen.! About different political systems, but not something we would ever emulate the televised speech their... Place in Palo Alto, California a teacher who usually granted his a., California unorthodox teaching methods even allowing a white supremacist and a communist to be guest speakers his... Resistance to this marshal behavior to follow tyrannical orders if it becomes easier to explain why tyrannical regimes can to! Discipline must be experienced if it is to be recognised and appreciated all over the in! Were rewarded for making an effort at answering or asking questions of myself as a way of life even! Question that started our plunge in studying Nazi life we also shared a deep secret it happened the selected! What Ron says happened in the class and do n't strike out for attention changes policy. To this marshal behavior ahead in earnest concentration did n't change seen him )... Of Nazism his role playing spilled out of the school counselors were to... We can bring it a rule to salute all class members outside the third wave experiment unethical! When it happened they were the students selected to represent their area looked one! The light but the pattern did n't really happen Jones do you remember the Third gave... Since we had a salute I made it a new sense of of! What does he do now ( or after he was fired from teaching after a year-long discussion, but something. Most of the question Jones wrote a detailed recollection of the question anyone else about Third... In Palo Alto, California the athletic teams, and do n't strike out for attention fashion... Discipline and community were meaningless without action reasons review boards were created and have drastic... Young people chosen to help in this cause how to initiate new members organised for 12 pm the day! 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