Friday, June 10, 2011

Vs.

The murder of Jose Guerena, Department of Education SWAT raids, police confiscating cameras, the TSA preying on the weak...it's enough to make you think the world's gone mad. But it hasn't, not really.

It's actually become the Stanford Prison Experiment, writ large.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

17 comments:

Alan said...

Damn, that explains a lot.

Of course you know that experiment always ends in disaster. :(

Joanna said...

Brrrrrrrrr.

Jenny said...

ayup.

Wielding power is cool.

:(

Anonymous said...

It really does explain a lot.

RobertSlaughter said...

Ms. Breda, that is a frackingly brilliant insight. Thank you.

Guffaw in AZ said...

true genius!

Robert McDonald said...

Yeah, the pretty much sums the whole thing up. Kevin is going to be pissed you did it in such a short post!

Old NFO said...

Good post... truly a disaster!!!

Chris said...

Well, yes. Power corrupts. So, since there is virtually no feedback mechanism to punish those who abuse such power in cases such as those mentioned, tht abuse will not only continue, but increase. Oh, joy. Now I'll sleep well. (Not.)

Michael Hawkins said...

Yeah that pretty much sums it up. This guy's got some lovely video's on the subject.

Pretty well documented as far s conspiracists go.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptFR71tk9ss

Bubblehead Les. said...

Throw in what happened to poor Murdered Kitty Genovese in NYC in the early 60's, where it was discovered that the more witnesses to a crime, the less responsibility to stop it occurs, and that seems to sum up America in the 21st. Century.

Unless you hate being a Sheep, and you hate Wolves....

Earl said...

I found my time in a prison interesting because the experts in that Experiment were the inmates, they were sure they couldn't be wrong about the system. I also know that those participants were college level, almost adults, pretending to be someone else.

Criminals aren't shaped by the society - they are part of it. There are many fine policemen and women that don't think the whole world is out to get them. Could be the media hype becomes a truth. Still I did look hard at Ruby Ridge and Waco, Texas and recent stupidity on the part of THOSE in CHARGE makes me pray harder.

mike's spot said...

Zimbardo reference ftw.

NotClauswitz said...

You can always tell a Stanford man, you just can't tell 'em much - as evidenced by consistently and provably wrong butterfly-chaser Paul Ehrlich continuing to receive accolades as an environmental savant...

That Guy said...

Pretty much the only thing I can do is agree... and be frightened as hell.

Peripatetic Engineer said...

Now go look up The Milgram Experiment! Then you will really get scared.

Laughingdog said...

Ah yes, the "evil starts at 15v" experiment. Here's a good talk on both experiments.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/lang/eng//id/272