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The Monsters Are Real

by | 29.11.2018 | Yleinen

Monsters are real

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what, monsters are real?

Oh, they are real. They are part of our everyday life. They exist in all of us. Remember when parents told that there were no monsters in the closet? Well, they were right. The only monster was under the blanket.

The famous experiment

A famous experiment, in which participants were asked to behave as “teachers” who were supposed to help the “learner” by giving them electric shocks upon failure. Participant could hear the scream from the other room. Nonetheless, 65% of the participants gave the maximum electric shock (450 volts). They weren’t happy about it, but they performed the acts as “instructor” advised them to continue.

Prisoner vs guard

It was August 1971, when Philip Zimbardo conducted an experiment in which he put young male students in mock prison, where they were assigned as guards or prisoners. Soon the experiment got out of hands as guards invented several ways of degrading and punishing the prisoners. The experiment had to be aborted after only six days, when the guards had transformed into sadistic and abusive monsters.

FROM NORMAL TO MONSTER

Ordinary Men is a book written by Christopher Browning in 2001. It describes as ordinary men turn into cold-blooded Jew murderers as they were assigned to Poland and later execute The Final Solution. Their commander told them that they could go home at any given time, if they thought they couldn’t perform such monstrous acts.
Only a few refused to participate.

obedience over empathy

Strong leaders have a strong impact on their followers. One of the most brutal examples of this, was The Jonestown Massacre, in which a movement leader Jim Jones convinced 900 people to kill themselves. How can somebody convince you to kill yourself let alone your children with poison? Some of the most monstrous things seem to be caused by a deference to authority. But there are other factors that seem to affect our tendency for evil.

 

Lack of Personal responsibility

If somebody else claims to take responsibility for your actions, does that remove your own responsibility for your actions? If you were told to kill prisoners by the commanding officer, would you do that?

“The Man Who Passes The Sentence, Should Swing the Sword”

 

ANONYMOUS

People are more likely to to give into the temptation to be evil, when they are anonymous. Just think about it. There are a lot of people writing horrible comments on the Internet. They could never write anything insulting on their own name. You are at your truest form, when you can be good or bad without anyone finding out. It’s your moral voice that will guide you during those situations.

 

 

 

The conclusion

It’s chilling to read about the monstrous things people have done to others. There are things that are wildly disturbing. They are disturbing, because they are real and some of the people, who conducted such acts were no different than you and me.

It’s comforting to know that we have a choice. We can decide what we do. If we see someone struggle, maybe we can help them. If we see a wallet in the street, maybe we can return the wallet and know that we have done something good.

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