Advanced Essay #3: Power to Violence

Essay:

Humans are physiological creatures. We think and find a reason for everything we do, even if that reason is not “good.” Everyone does it including the people you wouldn’t expect; people with high authority over others. Those people believe they have more of a right to inflict violence onto other people because of the position they have. They are also more perceptible to violence. This all leads to a world of violence due to the people of power.

In early August of 1971, 24 male college students from the US and Canada were chosen to be part of a social psychological experiment; The Stanford Prison Experiment. The experiment would split the group into two. Half of the group would play the role of prison guards while the other half of the group played the role of  prisoners. These positions were all chosen at random. Instructions were given to the prisoners while the guards were given little to no instructions. It was their house to run. The experiment studied and evaluated both groups. They wanted to see what stripping a person quickly of their identity would do but they also wanted to see what power would do to an everyday citizen. The results were shocking. It took a very short amount of time for the guards to sink into their roles. They created rules for the prisoners to follow. They treated the prisoners like true criminals. They degraded the prisoners by making them wear prison dresses as their uniforms. They punished them by making them do push-ups, similar to how Nazis punished Jewish people in concentration camps. The fact that this happened so quickly is scary to see. These were everyday college students, all with positive backgrounds that just wanted some money (paid for doing the experiment). This shows us that people with authority will do whatever it takes to degrade someone who is below them. They believe that if it is not hurting them that it is alright. Before the experiment started, all 24 men were similar. The one switch changed it all. Power. Power gave them the ability to inflict violence. They had the power and didn’t care how bad it would hurt others who in all reality, were just like them. The master behind the Stanford Prison Experiment, the experiment talked about above, is a man named Philip Zimbardo. After the experiment, he went on to make a TED Talk and write a book about what he calls the Lucifer Effect. He defines the Lucifer effect as,“ Individuals and groups  who usually act humanely can sometimes act otherwise in certain circumstances (TedTalk, Zimbardo). This proves that everyday people are easily able to change their ways of thinking and acting based on a situation. In the case of the SPE, we saw the guards act out because they were put in a non-everyday situation. A situation that gave them power.

People of authority and power also tend to make important decisions without the input of the people the decision will be effect. Look at the case of our government and presidents (past and current). Wars have been waged without the consent of our nation. National emergencies were called with little to no thought of the people. Presidents have skipped the approval of the congress to go to war. There are rules such as the War Power Act, that presidents completely ignore. It seems as though presidents, some of the people with the most power in the US, don’t think about the violence that going to war can bring. The violence doesn’t directly affect them; So why should they care? They are not the ones fighting in the fields. They are not the ones trying to keep them alive. They are not the ones dying for the Nation they should be running. If people have power over others, the chance they wouldn't send those other people into the violence is slim to none. They do what they want. They don't want to be hurt. They would rather have others fight the job so they don't have to.

In conclusion, we can see that through social psychological experiments and with everyday life that people of power use violence to their advantage. We can see a tie between violence and power. When people are given power in situations they are more likely to use it to their advantage and inflict violence on people who they feel are lesser. People who have power do not think about the people the violence will affect. As long as it is not them they don’t care.

Work Cited:

1.) Stanford Prison Experiment https://www.prisonexp.org/the-story

2.) War Power Act https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2001/09/what-war-powers-does-the-president-have.html