…Or do situations make them evil?
Good People by Jack Johnson
This is a subject that has fascinated me for ages, and is also one that I deem to be very important. It should be important to all of us. I like to believe that none of us are really evil, yet we all do bad, even terrible things, at different points in our lives. There are no ‘bad people’ but people who do ‘bad things’ because of the circumstances/situations. This may sound like an idealistic, naive kind of belief, yet this is a conclusion I have reached after years of experience/careful observation and thought. That does not mean that you can’t blame the person for their negative, evil actions, it does not mean that because the situation maketh the person, the person is excused for their behavior. I just prefer to think that instead of being inherently evil, people placed in different situations they may behave differently. I also believe that people do always have a choice. Even with that belief system, though, I don’t really understand how it is possible to commit some of the pure evil, horrendous acts that have taken place in the world from the very beginning, from the very start of human civilization (my last post is a sad reminder of a recent example).
This is a fascinating article charting the recent work done on the subject which started with Milgram’s now famous experiment.
Charting the psychology of evil…
And kudos for finally looking at the other side of the spectrum, the ‘goodness’ of human beings…check out Everyday Heroism at www.everydayheroism.org.
I hope you will all choose to do good, positive things today, and fight the situations that may cause you to do otherwise.
Inherently Evil? No. I’m not even sure that these experiments truly demonstrated that.
What they did show is that the bulk of humans are inherently social creatures that do what authority figures tell them to do or, in the case of the Stanford experiment, when humans obtain power they inherently try to solidify it by making sure that asymmetry is kept.
(also to say)
Ironicly, it tends to be the sociopaths, aspies, SSDs, and other such people who are least vulnerable to this effect.
The choice of the word ‘evil’ is unfortunate and misleading. What the experiment shows is how people can get ‘trapped’ in a situation, and lose control of their own free will. Many of Milgram’s subjects desperately wanted to stop, but actually failed to realized they could. Perhaps we should look at our schools, which teach obeying authority , rather than questioning it.
Neeneko:
Yes, I agree. In fact, the experiments demonstrate quite a different idea…thus I ask the question. But apart from proving that humans will follow authority and instructions to the T, I think the nature of the experiments (i.e., focused on afflicting cruelty) do make for a very interesting look into the human mind. Its not just following authority to fulfill any task…it is important to note that they followed authority to afflict pain to a fellow human being (and in the latest study, even when they were told they didn’t have to). That adds an aspect that focuses especially on human tendency and willingness to do ‘bad’.
Mike W:
You’re right about Milgram’s subjects, but I’m not sure the group in the most recent study were in similarly strict conditions…from what I’ve read in the study, they were given more free will and even told they could stop if they wanted to. I’d have to go back and look more carefully though. But I agree 100% about your point regarding schools and obeying authority.