The Stanford Prison Experiment conducted in 1971 focused on the effects that an “evil” place could have on a good person. The goal of this experiment was to find out when good people are put in an evil place, will good win over evil? Or will evil rise above the good? From the experiment, having good people in an evil place and being put in harsh situations effected the way that the prisoners and guards acted. Guards who were more lenient toward the prisoner did not say anything to the guards who were stricter in their treatment of the prisoners. The prisoners also started to act out, and sometimes would single out the actions of other prisoners as a way to protect themselves from the harsh guards. I have found similar instances where good people were put in trying situations, pushing them to turn their actions evil. The findings to the Stanford Prison Experiment suggests that good people will be affected by “evil” and as such their actions would reflect, which I have found to be true in the cases of Raymond Tensing, Joseph Stalin, United States creation of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and the involvement of the United State military as guards at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.
On July 19, 2015 Samuel DuBose was stopped by a University of Cincinnati police officer, Raymond Tensing for a minor moving violation (Harvard Law Review). Officer Tensing sked DuBose to produce his license multiple times, however DuBose wouldn’t comply. During this time, Officer Tensing saw something on the floor of the car by Samuel DuBose’s foot. The officer asked DuBose what it was and DuBose handed him a bottle of Gin. Eventually, DuBose admitted to not having his license on him. Following this information, Officer Tensing opened the car door and asked Samuel DuBose to remove his seatbelt to which DuBose responded multiple times saying that he did not do anything wrong. Dubose then grabbed his car door and closed it then turned the car on and started to drive away. Officer Tensing reached into the car trying to stop DuBose but was dragged with the car a little way down the road and then discharged his gun as he fell onto the road (Pérez-peña). There has been a lot of stories on the news of police officers being shot in the line of duty. This has had an impact on many police officers who exercise precaution because they do not know who it is that they are about to pull over. It could be a mentally ill person, someone who is hostile and many other cases. It takes one second for a seemingly minor traffic stop to turn violent. The officers do not know if they are going to have a weapon or something else pulled on them, they fear for their lives as many others who would be in their situation. In this case, the officer was put in a situation with an unruly person who tried to flee the scene and almost ran him over, Officer Raymond Tensing was put in a bad situation that resulted in an evil act.
Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, better known as Joseph Stalin, was born in 1879 in Russia. He grew up in poverty, dealing with abuse form his alcoholic father, and bullying from other children. His mother sent him to study to be a priest when he was about twenty years old, but soon after Stalin started to rebel. He focused on Karl Marx’s writing, renounced the faith of the priests to become an atheist, joined a socialist group and constantly argued with the priests until he was inevitably kicked out of the institution. He organized protests and strikes that lined up with the ideas of the revolutionary movement that was against the Russian government. A few years after, he started robbing banks to support the revolutionary movement (BBC).
At almost thirty years of age, Stalin marries his wife, Ketevan Svanidze, who gives birth to his son the following year. The death of his wife later that year took a major toll on him. As a result, he sends his son to live with his parents, changes his name to “Stalin” and devotes all his time to the movement against the Russian government. After being arrested many times, he was exiled to Siberia where he ends up becoming the General Secretary of the Communist Party. After the leader of the Communist Party dies Stalin fought ferociously to become the next leader, emphasizing his ideals of strengthening the Soviet Union rather than concurring the world. Many agreed with his views which then led him to become the dictator of the Soviet Union (BBC).
Following Stalin’s rise of power as the dictator of the Soviet Union, he proposed a five-year plan. The goal of the five-year plan was to exponentially increase the production of coal, steel, agriculture and electricity. The whole reason that this seemingly difficult task was implemented was because Stalin wanted to make the USSR independent from any other country relying only on themselves for production, increase his power as dictator, and get rid of anyone who would oppose his view or Stalinism and create a fully functioning, independent socialist country. As expected, people started to rebel against Stalin, only producing enough food that was needed for people to live which had the opposite effect to Stalin’s plan that had a goal to increase agriculture by a little more than half. Stalin retaliated by moving the farmers onto one collective piece of land but instead of letting the state have their crops and animals, the farmers threatened to burn crops and kill their cattle (Rathbone). Things then took a turn for the worse, people were incarcerated, sent to labor camps, exiled and even executed. This marked the beginning of The Great Terror which consisted of the nomenklatura purge and the mass operations. Millions of people were sent to prisons and millions of others were killed (Ilic). To some extent, Stalin was doing what the US did in the 1700’s, gaining independence. The situations he was in, turned his actions malicious and one of mass genocide.
Following the disaster on September 11, 2001, the Guantanamo Bay prison was opened. In the fight against international threats, the opening of the detention camp was to use it to interrogate suspected terrorists. At most, there was 684 people held in the facility with ages ranging from fourteen to eighty-nine. At the beginning, the detainees at the detention camp were captured during the war with Afghanistan. But as the years progressed, more people from different Middle-Eastern countries were taken to Guantanamo Bay (Ellis). When the detention facility first opened, officials were sure to keep the conditions humane. But after a few years, the conditions inside Guantanamo Bay prison was compared to Abu Ghrabi prison. Detainees were subject to torture, including waterboarding, to the point where the mental state of the detainees were of concern (Buncombe).
Mohamedou Slahi was one of the people held captive inside the military camp. He recounted his experience as a detainee inside of the military camp. Slahi admits to having ties to al Qaeda, including family members who are a part of the organization and being a recruiter for the terrorist organization. The guards inside the prison isolated him, made him drink salt water, kept him sleep deprived, physical abused him and much more. After confessing to what he did and other information useful to take down al Qaeda, Mohamedou Slahi was given a place to sleep and other privileges (CBS News). The Guantanamo Bay prison was similar to the Stanford Prison Experiment, in the treatment of prisoners and also shows how people in a bad place will commit mala in se acts.
People are not born evil, the events and situations that we encounter shape the way we are today. We see evidence of this in our lives, like Raymond Turner, Joseph Stalin, the Guantanamo Bay prison, and how the military treated the detainees inside the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. The actions Raymond Turner fears for his life as Samuel DuBose pulled the car away dragging Officer Turner with him. When Stalin caused mass genocide and imprisonment if people because he feared retaliation. After the terrorist attack on the United States, President George Bush opened Guantanamo Bay as a way to help fight against any future attacks. This proves that the Stanford prison experiment was correct, evil will prevail when good people are in a bad situation or place. Whether we like it or not, evil seems to find a way to creep into our lives.
