Socializing The Evil
"Do we all become sadists under certain situational forces? At least, this is what Professor Philip Zimbardo advocates when asked about the obvious parallels between some of the behaviours employed in the terrible abuses at the US-American prison facility of Abu Ghraib in Iraq and behaviours of students during his famous as well as disputed Stanford prison experiment in the 1970s. He says "virtually anyone could be recruited to engage in evil deeds that deprive other human beings of their dignity, humanity and life" (Zimbardo, 2004).
Such a strict situationist approach ignores the complexity of dimensions involved in stimulating human behaviour potentials. The behaviours in question are of clearly sadistic nature - but what is sadism essentially? What socializing influences contribute to the development of such inhumane behaviour potentials? What are the situational forces that stimulate their expression? Does Western society's democratic socialization practice foster the development of sadistic personality traits?
A thorough analysis must clearly reject Zimbardo's notion that a vinegar barrel will always turn 'sweet cucumbers' into 'sour pickles' and clearly demonstrates, on example of the US-American society, how a majority of people suffer from a lack of self-expression in terms of fundamental and private emotional needs, being forced into line with public expressions of 'national identity' and 'American Way of Life'.
Some of the most often cited work in social experimental psychology, such as the 'obedience experiments' by Stanley Milgram, can be shown to actually disproof Zimbardo's hypothesis, which, so it appears has resulted from a misinterpretation of his own research results. There will always be a recognizable minority of people who do not get overpowered by extraordinary social circumstance, being the ones that should be restructuring modern democratic society. And this is, in the end, what Zimbardo himself acknowledges, astonished about the personal strength and integrity of the few..."
[Photo from: Walsh, J., (ed.), Scherer, M. and Benjamin, M. (2006) 'The Abu Ghraib Files', [online]. Available from: Salon.com]
Read Claudia Derer's full article [Word Doc: 144K].
