The third wave, an overwhelming experiment

Steve Conigio was a high school student like any other. One day, in the history class he was taking with Professor Ron Jones, He asked an interesting question: “How could the German people, the ordinary citizens, claim ignorance about what was happening to the Jews?”. His teacher was left wondering. He didn’t know how to answer her. This was the beginning of a puzzling experiment with the human mind, which became known as The Third Wave.

Ron Jones decided to take a week of his classes to teach the students experientially how it had been possible for a free society to transform into a fascist regime.

The discipline

The teacher began the process through persuasion. First he tried to convince the students about the beauty and greatness of the discipline. He ordered them to assume a very rigid body posture at their desks and severely corrected even the slightest mistake.

The students quickly assimilated the new parameters, and Jones wondered how far he would be able to push them. So introduced new rules, such as the requirement to address him as “sir” or the obligation to stand up and step aside before speaking to the class.

The curious thing is that The group’s productivity increased significantly. The most passive students suddenly became more interested and participatory.. Everyone seemed to respond positively to authoritarianism.

The sense of belonging

On the second day, Professor Jones He wrote on the board a slogan that summarized what he had learned the day before: “Strength through discipline.” And he added a new sentence: “Strength through community.”. Then he talked to them about the importance of belonging to a group. She made up stories to reinforce the idea.

Later he had each student repeat the two learned instructions, twice. They seemed very pleased and seemed to experience more and more the feeling of belonging to the group.

The step to action

The third day A mandatory card was implemented to belong to the Third Wave group and more than 200 students asked to be admitted.. An initiation ritual was also designed, in which new members had to swear fidelity to the group’s principles. Everyone was also alerted to the need to keep an eye on others so that they do not break the rules.

It wasn’t long before the denunciations began to arrive. “Snitches” proliferated, but the idea was all the rage. The students who had previously been the most outstanding now looked disoriented and passive. Those who were previously isolated suddenly joined the group without major problems. Even the school principal began using the “Third Wave” greeting.

Pride

The next day Professor Jones arrived at his class and found a group of 80 students, completely silent and attentive to what he was going to say. Teacher He spoke of national pride, of the importance of making the country the best nation on the planet.

He immediately invited them to a public meeting, exclusively for members of the Third Wave, in which a presidential candidate would announce a government program for the nation.

The experiment is discovered

The last day of the experiment began with preparations for the demonstration. In the auditorium Jones greeted his students who responded with the agreed gesture. He also asked them to repeat the mantra (Strength through discipline!) and they did it several times, with singular conviction.

Then Jones turned on a television so everyone could meet the long-awaited leader. The image remained blank. Little by little he began to feel anguish and a long, disillusioned silence prevailed.

That’s when Jones took the microphone and said these words:

He then screened a film about the Third Reich. Some cried. Others simply got up and left in silence, disappointed.

Image courtesy of James Vaughan, FilaSiete

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