The lesson is that for most people, morality and ethics are little more than fear of embarrassment. It's not true for everyone--some people's moral agency is located more within themselves, and less than in those around them, but as a rule, we necessarily take out clues about what is acceptable from those around us. It sounds monstrous, but it's probably necessary for a functioning society. It is necessary, because we are stupid. Even smart people are stupid, and ordinary people, well, god help us. Doing the right thing regardless of the opinion of others sounds great, but in fact, if everyone went charging around genuinely acting according to the moral sense they have worked out for themselves, the world wouldn't last until lunchtime. That particular platitude can be so confidently given because we all know it is just hot air--nobody actually wants everyone to make their own rules. Abramović's experiment is a good reminder, but it's alarming that the result should be so surprising when you tell people, from the pulpit of a cultural event, that they are in a special circumstance where everything is permissable. Culturally, we used to know this. The truth that should be obvious is that not all the people who ignore the crowd and are driven by their inner soul are good. We think of the saints, but criminals and tyrants are in the same category, of people who ignore the rules.