A firing squad or the lethal injection has been typically used for executions!
Did you know that even there the human ‘morality’ is tried to be kept relatively ‘safe’!?
In the book Behave, Robert Sapolsky uses the example of a firing squad to illustrate the psychological concept of diffusion of responsibility and challenge our assumptions about free will and morality!
Now if you do read my blogs then you may remember one called the Rhythm 0!
In this humanity is tested and it fails!
The scariest thing in the world is that the average human is capable of gross acts of cruelty if he or she is faced with circumstances! You cannot forget that the primitive ‘man’ or ‘woman’ were once even cannibals! Which is why your every action shows how ‘developed’ you are! This can be with the dress you wear to the food you eat! Most importantly though it is by how you ‘BEHAVE’!
Now why a firing squad is used to execute is that if it is one to one shooting then the human may feel guilt (if some humanity is left that is!) even if the person who is to be shot ‘deserves’ it! So when you are a part of the squad then the morality is safe (r)!
Sapolsky states that humans have a deep-seated aversion to killing another person up close (hip hip hurrah! Some humanity!)
So to counteract the psychological trauma and moral responsibility of an execution, historical firing squads employed specific practices:
One is like above; using multiple Shooters: Instead of one executioner, a team (typically five or more) fired simultaneously. This allowed each shooter to feel they were only one-fifth responsible, a comforting but irrational thought!
There is another key tactic also! Which is the Blank Cartridge!
A key historical tactic was giving one random member of the squad a blank cartridge instead of a live bullet. This provided every shooter with a psychological “out”—the ability to believe, with some plausible deniability, that “I may not even have shot him or her”!
No one is told who gets the blank and those with conscience get some comfort!
Even in the case of lethal injection; some states employ two injectors!
Both press the button and only one goes to the convict! One is diverted to a waste bucket!
Here also the person does not know whose ‘injection’ went into the convict and whose got waste! That is decided randomly by the computer and the ‘decision’ is immediately erased!
Sapolsky uses these powerful example to support his broader arguments in the novel!
A simple action like pulling a trigger is influenced by a vast web of factors, from brain chemistry and personal history to culture and situational forces. The firing squad setup highlights how situational design can drastically alter behavior and the perception of moral responsibility.
Sapolsky also states that any human, given the same powerful situational forces, is capable of performing both the best and the worst deeds. The design of the firing squad manipulates those forces to make an otherwise difficult act possible for ordinary individuals!
In some customs when the cartridges could only be loaded at a time and guns had only single shots; if the firing squad ‘missed’ the convict, he or she was usually left free! The belief was that if he or she was innocent; ‘God’ would protect him or her and the squad will ‘miss!’
Of course if you know everyone in the firing squad then that would also ‘help’!
Finally the conclusion is that the behavior of the soldiers is heavily shaped by external and biological factors beyond their conscious control, making the concept of individual, ‘blameless’ responsibility problematic.
All the development on one side and we still need some stops to be called Human! ‘Humane’ is the key word here though!
One way is by calming your mind with meditation and yoga!
Who better for that than the legend Yogacharya B.K.S. Iyengar!
Now let the dreams fire! Shub ratri!
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