His mind is reeling. It feels like everything is pressing in on him, as though he is going mad.
"Against the wall!" the guard shouts again. "Come on, somebody get him back in line"
Suddenly 8612 wheels to face the guard. "Listen, if I have to be in here I am not going to put up with this... I mean, really!!!" The prisoner turns and grips one of his fellow prisoners by the arm. "I couldn't even get out" he hisses. There's a desperate edge to his voice. "They wouldn't let me out. You can't get out of here."
The other prisoners laugh nervously, but you can see it in their eyes - the sudden flash of panic. He couldn't get out? That means that this is an actual prison. And they're stuck inside
This is a brief account of an episode that happened during the Stanford Prison Experiment
Started as a game, 20 persons volunteered to spend two weeks in a fake jail in the basement of the Stanford Psychology Department, dressed up as prisoners and guards.
The idea of Philip Zimbardo was conceived to investigate what situations make good people turn bad. A prison sounded like the ideal place to get answers to his questions.
What makes prisons such violent places? Was it the character of the prisoners or the guards to blame? Or was it the structure of the prison itself that brought out the worst in people?
He ended up getting his answer quite fast and in a brutal way...
The researchers had held an orientation meeting for the guys playing the role of guards the day before the experiment, during which they told them that they could not physically harm the prisoners but they could use the type of language they preferred to insult them, they could withhold basic necessities such as food and blankets.
They could create in the prisoners feelings of boredom, a sense of fear to some degree, take away completely their privacy and individuality in various ways.
At night, when the guards thought the researchers weren't watching the worse type of abuses were used.
The experiment went so far that after just 36 hours into the two weeks one of the prisoner (8612) had to be released.
After 6 days the experiment was halted because the prisoners were mentally broken and the guards had turned into monsters.
This was just an experiment but it was a very good way to prove how power has a very poisoning effect on many people turning them in some cases into greedy, selfish, heartless beings. There was no need for the guards to punish the prisoners in that way, they were not told to abuse them but they did. Strong in the fact that they had unlimited power over the prisoners they used it in the worst way.
In my own little surroundings I have seen it happening too... even if on a small scale, when people got promoted to a new job and all of a sudden they were in charge of other workers... they became lazy, rude and demanding. Mind you, not all of them but I have seen my fair share of this happening... a bit too many times to consider it just a coincidence.
It makes me wonder if this is what happens to people who hold the utmost power in our countries, those who make decisions on our behalf, those who are caught stealing our money for their own benefit, cover their mischiefs so we don't find out since it would be only fair we asked for them to be removed from their places... are they like the guards?
I certainly hope not... but I fear I might be wrong on a few accounts...
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