The Stanford Prison Experiment was a psychological study performed under Professor Zimbardo at Stanford University in 1971. It was designed to study antisocial behavior and involved the observation of how volunteer guards reacted when given authority over volunteer prisoners. The experiment was terminated early because of the increasing brutality of some of the ‘guards’.
Trump is conducting a similar project, imbuing various cabinet members and their newly hired underlings with the imprimatur of executive authority and instructing them to perform various aggressively undemocratic actions. The results are horrifyingly similar to the Stanford experiment, but no one yet has had the power or temerity to stop this project.
Marco Rubio (or little Marco, as Trump once demeaned him), flush with his new authority as Secretary of State, has revoked visas and permits for hundreds of students who protested against the Israeli conduct of the war in Gaza, in direct violation of their basic right to free speech. He accuses them of antisemitism, though many Jewish students were hand-in-hand with these students in demonstrations and protests.
The same is true for Kristi Noem, whose cruelly zealous prosecution of undocumented immigrants while taking every opportunity to burnish her image in photo ops, is a perfect example of how power can provoke sadistic and anti-social behavior.
JD Vance, the attack dog for Trump, abandoned any semblance of integrity when he left the Never Trump Camp and courted Trump at Mar-a-Lago, desperate for the next step in his political ascendancy. Now he spews out ever more mean-spirited diatribes against any country or person or principle that stands in the way of the MAGA cult.
Hegseth, the veritable poster child of toxic masculinity, is rampaging through the military in a petty, vindictive manner, hoping to win the award for most slavishly devoted to master Trump. After all, his time as a Fox host worshipping Trump got him the job.
Trump, who needs no motivation to lash out in vengeful, sadistic acts, is using every tool at his disposal to attack, belittle, disenfranchise, persecute, threaten and extort anyone standing in his way.
The type of people who have signed on for the MAGA ride and imbibed the Trump kool aid are in free fall. Like the Zimbardo guards, they are empowered well beyond normal social boundaries. They are the type of people who embrace power trips and rationalize cruelty.
When I went to Naval Officer’s Candidate School in Newport, RI after college, I experienced a mini version of the Stanford experiment. Older officer candidates were given authority to make life very difficult for new ones in the quest to break down individuality and create a team unity and military discipline. They responded to this responsibility in different ways. About two thirds of them did the required work with integrity, finding no joy in the process but carrying it out in a competent manner. But one third of them succumbed to the temptation to give their inner demons full voice. They became sadistic taskmasters and reveled in the fear and unpleasantness they inflicted on their charges. It shocked me how quickly these people lost their humanity, then pretended it was all part of the game once it was over.
The Trump team is an all-star cast of people with this predisposition for antisocial behavior. They are not so unlike the Himmlers, the Goebbels and the Heydrichs of a previous experiment of empowering people’s darker selves. The only question is whether there are enough remaining people of conscience in our three branches of government to rein in this experiment before it permanently damages our country.
No comments:
Post a Comment