> "In August 1971, an advertisement appeared in the Palo
> Alto Times: ..."
"The authors believe [the experiment] proves that this situation can transform normal persons into pathetic, submissive beings or into merciless sadists. I think, however, that the experiment proves the opposite, if anything at all. If, in spite of the general atmosphere of this seeming prison, conceived to be humiliating and de-humanizing for the sake of the experiment (which the "guardians" seem to have realized instantly) two thirds of the "guardians" committed no sadistic acts for their pleasure, it seems to me that the experiment rather shows that people can _not_ be made sadistic just with the help of a fitting situation." -- Erich Fromm, _The_Anatomy_of_Human_Destructiveness_, Chapter 2, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York 1973, translated back into English from the German edition by me.
cheers AN