Pictures of the Abu Ghraib prison abuse have shocked the nation. Like most of us, I was stunned to learn that Americans were responsible for such atrocities. The enemy is us, too! But questions still plagued my mind. What got into those soldiers that led them to do those degrading things to their prisoners?
I naturally want to distance myself from them. Then I read about a famous prison simulation experiment done at Stanford in the 1970s.1 Volunteers were assigned to be guards and prisoners. Within a few hours prisoner abuse began. Instead of its planned two weeks, the experiment was discontinued in less than one. In just five days, because of humiliation and abuse, prisoners began acting in pathological ways and the experiment terminated.
Similar experiments were done at Wheaton College with “Christian” youth from good homes (Christianity Today, August 2004). Within an hour the foul language started, then other vulgar behavior followed. During the middle of the night in some experiments, the “guards” stripped the “inmates,” handcuffed their ankles in painful positions and made them eat food off the floor.2 And these were Christians!
Without God’s restraining power we all are capable of being cruel and inhumane to others. More troubling is that the rest of the group doesn’t prevent the behavior from expanding when one or two get out of hand. Groupthink sets in. There is a power exerted in groupthink that includes loyalty, camaraderie, guilt projection, and which exerts strong pressure to remain silent, even when the behavior is known to be wrong or immoral. Breaking rank becomes more of a crime to the group than the abuse itself. A mentality develops that justifies the abusive behavior. The victim “deserves it” because he has been “so very bad.” If the evidence isn’t strong enough, the mob mentality exaggerates and manufactures crimes that the victim didn’t commit, to justify abuse.
Perhaps you have seen this kind of thing on a more moderate level in your local church. I have heard stories in which church members are cruelly villainized by their fellow church members when they refused to go along with groupthink. Sometimes they are disfellowshipped by a reigned-up mob of their own former friends on the most flimsy pretences.
Those who refuse to get caught up in mob mentality and try defending the victim are the true heroes. They fight for the rights of others, and often take it in the neck themselves. They are treated as traitors, or turncoats. But they also know that saying nothing enables the abusive behavior. The hero in the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal is the soldier who reported the improper behavior to his superiors because he knew it was wrong. He paid a price, no doubt, from his friends for being a snitch. But in the end, he is the one who deserves the honors for exposing them.
True heroism and stewardship of our influence does not allow us to remain silent in face of abuse, even if there are negative consequences.
References:
1. www.prisonexp.org
2. www.youthdirect.org/appendix2.PDF
