Zimbardo & Why Good People Do Evil

I chanced upon a copy of "The Lucifer Effect - Understanding How Good People Turn Evil" (Random House 2007) by Professor Zimbardo the other day. This followed another chance encounter with the Professor on a BBC Radio 4 programme hosted by Celia Hammond last week.

Substantially based on his Stanford (University) Prison Experiment in the 1970s, but extensively "contextualised", "The Lucifer Effect" explores how bad/evil situations give rise to bad/evil human behaviour. Having just skimmed the book, I can't say more than that, but its contents and the radio interview have set me thinking on this subject.

My own intepretation of "Evil" and, for that matter, "Good", is threefold :

1. There are some people who are inherently bad/good almost to the exclusion of the other quality, and the rest of us exist on a spectrum between the 2 qualities.
2. Situations give rise to bad/evil and good behaviour : this seems to be the main theme of Professor Zimbardo's work.
3. There is also archetypal or metaphysical evil/good which can be "released" by both people and situations.

The overall message of Professor Zimbardo's work is that we must all seek to avoid the creation of bad/evil situations, wherever and when possible, not least because these, in my view, provide channels for the levels 1 and 3 kind of evil.

Georgia and Solzhenitsyn on My Mind

This blog began with a reflection on Alexandr Isaevich Solzhenitsyn's "The Gulag Archipelago". With Solzhenitsyn's death last week, it is again time to remember his legacy.

In his latter years, Solzhenitsyn was felt by some to have become a pawn of the Putin regime. He returned to his Russian "homeland" in the 1990s, having been, by all accounts deeply uncomfortable with Western "materialism" and "moral ambivalence", albeit that Solzhenitsyn's exile to the United States had been brought about by his far deeper antipathy for totalitarian communism. Although it had not started out this way, Alexandr Isaevich had been a supporter of the Revolution, and it was only after World War II that he fell out with the Soviet State, as his understanding of its powerful means of oppression - in Solzhenitsyn's case, The Gulag and internal exile - deepened like an infernal chasm.

It was also last week, that conflict broke out between the former Soviet State of Georgia and the Russian Federation. This is primarily a dispute about territory and "homeland", although the discordant political personalities, and aspirations, of the Russian and Georgian Governments are important. Western material interests too come into play, as Europe is deeply dependent on Russian reserves of oil and gas, and there is some moral ambivalence about the conflict as a consequence. Although some optimism should be attached to the intervention of the European Union, of which, along with NATO, Georgia's present government would one day like it to be part, we should all be ever wary of the potential for Russian oppression.

Gordon : Get Rid of Those Two !

I'm referring to the Teflon-coated Balls-Cooper duo, the "Children's Secretary", Ed Balls, and his wife, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Yvette Cooper. It's high time both of them spent more time with their family. They've done enough damage to this country.

Am I the only woman who'd like to spank Ed Ball's no doubt well-fed buttocks ? Perhaps spin doctor turned psychotherapist Derek Draper, now returned to the Labour Party bosom, could counsel me, as an NHS referral, of course.

The Suicide Files@Dark Lyrics

I've discovered the following verses on the web under "The Suicide Files" and "Dark Lyrics". Not sure of their origin (directions welcome), but they they perhaps express sentiments meaningful to an increasing number of young people out there. Maybe some food for thought for politicians returning to earth following exclusion from high office....

The Edge Of Town
The Cul-de-sac jungle is a cruel place.
It's a living rotting failure from a different age.
And if you're looking for the place that dreams go to die,
it's not in the city it's around the outside.
You can mortgage your future for subleached purity
and accept the sterility in exchange for security,
but no matter how many times you run from your fears
the same problems always re-appear.
Day after day it's all just decay,
and the promised land just gets further away.
On these dead lawns lie your father's dreams.
White flight. White blight. White screams.
On these dead lawns lie your mother's dreams

Rum, Romanism and Tammany
Idealism is fucking dead.
Laughed off the stage at countless conventions.
Laissez faire is en vogue again.
It's silver tongue has been heaven sent.
One man, one vote, throw it away.
One land, one hope, throw it away.
When every candidate looks the same, born of noble blood.
So don't fucking talk to me about our tradition of democracy.
Who the fuck am I supposed to believe in?