What happens next time good people are put in an evil place?

Rana Askoul asks: will our humanity win over evil, or will evil triumph? 

The world is more divided today after the Charlie Hebdo attack. Anne Gelbard / AFP
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In the summer of 1971, a psychology professor at Stanford University set out to conduct a two-week prison experiment to study the psychology of imprisonment. The opening statement on one historical document that records details of the experiment asks: “What happens when you put good people in an evil place? Does humanity win over evil, or does evil triumph?”

Around 70 students responded to an advertisement to participate in a college experiment studying the psychological effects of prison life. After many exams to test psychological and physical health, 24 educated healthy young men were chosen. They were arbitrarily divided into two groups: prisoners and guards. A fully functional simulation of a real prison and a real prison experience was created. Prison guards were given no rules but were asked to do whatever was necessary to maintain law and order.

Within 48 hours of the start of the experiment, guards started engaging in activities to stamp their authority over prisoners and quell their sense of identity. These activities included waking prisoners up using blasting whistles at 2.30am to conduct prisoner counts. Soon after the guards started imposing push-ups as a form of punishment on prisoners who broke rules or displayed negative attitudes towards the guards. The guards would step on prisoners’ backs while they were carrying out their push-up punishment.

By the second day, the guards launched fire extinguishers at prisoners who decided to rebel. They also stripped the prisoners naked, took their beds out from their prison cells, forced their ring leader into solitary confinement and started using intimidation and reward tactics with prisoners. The goal was to break the prisoners’ solidarity, force subservience and protect themselves from perceived danger and chaos.

By day four, the prison cells smelt of urine and faeces as prisoners were not allowed to use the toilet after 10.00pm. The prisoners were forced to use buckets that would not be emptied if the prisoners were deemed unruly in any sense. Some prisoners were now exhibiting signs of acute emotional disturbance, rage and uncontrollable crying.

The sadistic tendencies of guards and signs of depression exhibited by prisoners led to the termination of the experiment six days after it started and eight days short of its scheduled duration.

So how is it that in six days, ordinary people can become willing perpetrators of evil? For those who would argue that the human moral compass has improved since 1971, one only has to remember the Abu Ghraib prisoner torture and abuse, or perhaps the more recent report on CIA torture. These experiments and incidents, and many more from across the world, are terrifying reminders of the average human’s capacity to commit evil.

The world today is even more divided after the Charlie Hebdo attacks. And although most have condemned this heinous crime, many seem to be set on exclusively assigning evil to one single “other” group, Muslims in this particular incident.

As our world faces daily reminders of terror, war and massacres that transcend race, beliefs and social backgrounds, can we not simply recognise the potential of evil in each and every one of us? Can we not be humbled by that very realisation so we can eliminate constructed collective self-righteousness that is fuelling today’s racism, division and hatred? As millions marched in a show of solidarity against terror, and many more rise to that battle daily in their own ways, perhaps we are not united by the strength of our values and morals. But paradoxically we are united in our susceptibility to evil and our daily commitment to choose the higher moral ground every time a temptation to hate and appropriate presents itself.

Shams Tabrezi was the spiritual instructor of Rumi, the 13th century Persian poet, jurist and Islamic scholar. Shams would urge Rumi to abandon the shells of his protected life and mix with the most inconsolable and the most downtrodden.

According to Shams, it was Rumi’s only way of guiding the most desolate to that higher moral ground. Shams is quoted to have said: “If we can embrace the universe as a whole, with all its differences and contradictions, everything will melt into One.” This leaves us with fundamental questions: what happens next time all of us good people are put in an evil place? Will our humanity win over evil, or will evil triumph?

Rana Askoul is a writer based in the UAE

On Twitter: @RanaAskoul