Our Stories
Lots of Situations Let Loose Lucifer
By Stew | posted 05/17/2007
“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:21)
In 1971 Joe Zimbardo ran a psychology experiment in the basement of the Stanford psychology building. He simulated a prison, recruiting students into roles as prisoners and guards. After six days, he had to halt the experiment because of the brutality and inhumanity that was being unleashed on prisoners by guards. This became a famous experiment in psychology circles because of the unexpected transformation of good and otherwise normal students into those willing to perpetrate evil. Fast forward a few decades, and along came the prison abuses in Abu Gharib. Although the abuses there came in the context of a war, the same thing happened; seemingly normal people were perpetrating evil. Dr. Zimbardo was called on as an expert witness to defend one of those accused in the Abu Gharib abuses. In this role he was thrust face-to-face with the evil done at Abu Gharib , and more personally, with the evil that had occurred in the experiment he had done years before.
He has written a book about his experiment, The Lucifer Effect, which describes day-by-day the experiment he conducted, and which analyzes what happened at Gharib. As he points out in the Forward to his book, the book was not a labor of love. It was “emotionally painful” because he had to review video tapes of his own experiment and review unreleased photos of the abuses at Abu Gharib. He reaches a number of conclusions about the nature of evil and what can be done to fight it. His model for how an individual act involves “situated character.” In this model one’s Character is vitally important at the level of Personal Evil. But, while Zimbardo holds individuals responsible for the evil they commit, i.e., their sin or Personal Evil, he describes two other external evils that can strongly contribute to individual evil.
The first is Situational Evil. In certain situations—apparently prison is one of them--it’s easy for people to be swept up into committing evil due to a combination of lack of supervision, peer pressure and dehumanization of victims.
The second is Systemic Evil. This is a more widespread sort of evil that generalizes and institutionalizes Situational Evil. With Systemic Evil the individual is disempowered so that he or she is “just following orders” or believes “there’s nothing I can do about it.” Institutions and “movements” can perpetrate Systemic Evil. Some obvious examples might be Nazism and slavery. Typically an Evil System rationalizes Evil of one group against another so that Evil becomes Good.
Zimbardo’s book categorizes these evils, but then also does something constructive. Recognizing the different types of evil is a first step, particularly recognizing that Situational and Sytemic Evil occur external to ourselves, although we are the ones who will commit the evil for which we remain responsible. Exercising self control and living a personally virtuous life at the personal level does not free us from the responsibility to act rightfully in situations and within systems. In confronting the “structural” evil of situations and systems, Zimbardo says that we must learn to act as heroes, and to recognize that confronting evil is vitally important. Training to be a hero is the final message. That means, in his book, being willing to act gallantly or to passively resist, being willing to make social sacrifice, and to preserve one’s principles and integrity.
So what does that have to do with Christianity? In my Book, an awful lot. The Gospels show a Jesus who confronted evil head-on, who spoke up against it at every opportunity, and in terms of social sacrifice on the cross made the biggest one of all. Jesus was and is the Hero who Christians train to be. Zimbardo’s parting message is that “heroic acts and the people who engage in them should be celebrated.” This sounds suspiciously like Christianity to me.
To respond to this message, email Stew at stewka@comcast.net.
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“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:21)
In 1971 Joe Zimbardo ran a psychology experiment in the basement of the Stanford psychology building. He simulated a prison, recruiting students into roles as prisoners and guards. After six days, he had to halt the experiment because of the brutality and inhumanity that was being unleashed on prisoners by guards. This became a famous experiment in psychology circles because of the unexpected transformation of good and otherwise normal students into those willing to perpetrate evil. Fast forward a few decades, and along came the prison abuses in Abu Gharib. Although the abuses there came in the context of a war, the same thing happened; seemingly normal people were perpetrating evil. Dr. Zimbardo was called on as an expert witness to defend one of those accused in the Abu Gharib abuses. In this role he was thrust face-to-face with the evil done at Abu Gharib , and more personally, with the evil that had occurred in the experiment he had done years before. He has written a book about his experiment, The Lucifer Effect, which describes day-by-day the experiment he conducted, and which analyzes what happened at Gharib. As he points out in the Forward to his book, the book was not a labor of love. It was “emotionally painful” because he had to review video tapes of his own experiment and review unreleased photos of the abuses at Abu Gharib. He reaches a number of conclusions about the nature of evil and what can be done to fight it. His model for how an individual act involves “situated character.” In this model one’s Character is vitally important at the level of Personal Evil. But, while Zimbardo holds individuals responsible for the evil they commit, i.e., their sin or Personal Evil, he describes two other external evils that can strongly contribute to individual evil. The first is Situational Evil. In certain situations—apparently prison is one of them--it’s easy for people to be swept up into committing evil due to a combination of lack of supervision, peer pressure and dehumanization of victims. The second is Systemic Evil. This is a more widespread sort of evil that generalizes and institutionalizes Situational Evil. With Systemic Evil the individual is disempowered so that he or she is “just following orders” or believes “there’s nothing I can do about it.” Institutions and “movements” can perpetrate Systemic Evil. Some obvious examples might be Nazism and slavery. Typically an Evil System rationalizes Evil of one group against another so that Evil becomes Good. Zimbardo’s book categorizes these evils, but then also does something constructive. Recognizing the different types of evil is a first step, particularly recognizing that Situational and Sytemic Evil occur external to ourselves, although we are the ones who will commit the evil for which we remain responsible. Exercising self control and living a personally virtuous life at the personal level does not free us from the responsibility to act rightfully in situations and within systems. In confronting the “structural” evil of situations and systems, Zimbardo says that we must learn to act as heroes, and to recognize that confronting evil is vitally important. Training to be a hero is the final message. That means, in his book, being willing to act gallantly or to passively resist, being willing to make social sacrifice, and to preserve one’s principles and integrity. So what does that have to do with Christianity? In my Book, an awful lot. The Gospels show a Jesus who confronted evil head-on, who spoke up against it at every opportunity, and in terms of social sacrifice on the cross made the biggest one of all. Jesus was and is the Hero who Christians train to be. Zimbardo’s parting message is that “heroic acts and the people who engage in them should be celebrated.” This sounds suspiciously like Christianity to me. To respond to this message, email Stew at stewka@comcast.net. |
