On 11 May 2004, Alexander Nekvasil wrote:
> "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.
Erich read the research report too quickly. The behavior of the guards varied in abusiveness, but all participated in and/or consented to the treatment of the prisoners (e.g., putting a guy in "solitary"--a small broom closet--for refusing to eat.) It wasn't simply a product of a few guys with sadistic personalities.
E's assessment is exactly analogous to the official line about the torture in Iraq: "a few bad apples". Yet another example of how unbridled individualism justifies the status quo and obscures power relations.
Miles