Now and then: The Parallel Worlds of Hell

international | crime and justice | news report Friday May 06, 2005 21:57 by neo

In this write-up I use psychological experiments to analyze how power affects people and how people respond to it. I will then apply those experiments on such things as the Nazi movement in the past and current day events.

I believe that while looking back and condemning the acts of Auswich (sorry if I spelled that wrong) and Nazi Germany we must also ANALYZE the WHY, HOW, WHAT, WHO, etc. We can't ignore those...they are very important as history tends to repeat itself...


The Nazi movement. I think we can all say with digust how horrible it was. Brutal massacre and killing millions. But I don't have to talk much about it as you all know about it. Rather I want to talk about the psychology involved during those times and also these days as well. History is repeating itself over and over again. The Nazi movement was never really dead...risen again in another form with another name and this time it is not in one country and it does not use blitzkriegs. Rather it is more disgusting and each day that they get away with it the more confidence they have. Each day that they see the masses apathetic or not caring they grow happier. They see the masses spit when they remember Hitler and smile as the same masses smile at them. And they laugh when they see the masses come out to mourn those who died in millions and somehow turn a blank eye towards those who are suffering the same fate today. So I ask you...if the whole world knew about Hitler's regime what would they have done?...what would you have done? Well...there are those that knew...true, not the masses, but those that knew had spies. It was the era before that of the Cold War and just like the Cold War suspiscion was everywhere and it was so intense that you could have felt it. Of course there were spies. Countries had spies in Germany and the USSR and spies in the USA and Britian and all over the rest of Europe there were spies. They knew well-enough what was happening in Germany and they reported it back. True it was not the masses that knew. It was the governments of the most powerful countries present. It was those same governments that did not move an inch to save the lives of those being killed, but rather moved to a war because of Hitler's STUPID move...his blitzkrieg. To THEM it was stupid. Hitler had it all yet he went after another country. The governments of the most powerful countries in the world went after Hitler only after he posed a threat as a person who would attack countries. But to their eyes, those pathetic countries he attacked represented mere markets. Places where they make profits and sell and buy. If he kept going after countries they would lose profit and the economy would go down. If he kept on going then the ruling classes would lose their palaces and the stocks would crash. Many people think this and I concluded this but not without reason.

There was a question nagging in my mind and it would NOT go away. They KNEW he was killing millions of people. Why did they not do anything? WHY WHY WHY? It haunted me. It was my further reading into neo-colonialism that really made me understand what people are really worth to the ruling class...nothing but a machine. I am writing this not to blather about crap others don't want to hear...I am writing this because JUST as we look back at the horrendous acts of the Nazis we MUST LOOKS AT THOSE ACTS COMMITTED TODAY THAT ARE NO DIFFERENT. That is my point. But why will I talk about those psychological experiments?...to show you that human beings, seeing someone superior to them will follow their orders to the extreme...even if it is to kill. and to show you how far a human being will go, given the power.

Psychological Experiments:

There are two experiments I would like to go over briefly.
One is called the Zimbardo Prison Experiment and the other I forgot the name but it happened well enough.

1.) In the first one volunteers were asked to sit in a room with a machine in front of them. The machine had a row of buttons which represented an amount of electric shock in volts. The volts increased up and up until the last one if given once to a person could kill. In another room a person was seated and he was hooked up with all sorts of electrodes. The volunteer was told that the experiment was to observe how human beings learn as he would say a word in the microphone and the person in the other room would have to choose the correct spelling. Everytime the person did not get the spelling right he would recieve a shock. And everytime he got one wrong the electrocuter would go up one button, thus increasing the voltage to be used on the learner. This experiment shocked psychologists everywhere, not one of them predicted any results anywhere close to what happened. The person in the other room would keep getting words wrong and the electrocution kept increasing. The learner started screaming inside and banging on the door and the volunteer would look at the psychologist who was wearing a doctor's coat and looking official and the psychologist, with a straight face told him to continue and never to stop and that this is for the learner's own good. The volunteer kept going until the learner was screaming. The volunteer would become tense and look back at the doctor and he would be told to continue nonetheless. Eventually the person in the other room would stop saying anything and not even banging...just silent. A vast majority of volunteers in this experiment went all the way to the worst voltage and some even started over again.

Maybe some of you already know that this was a hoax. The person in the other room was not connected to anything, he was just pretending. But this shows how when people are confronted with a superior they will go to great lengths to follow their orders even to kill.

2.) The Zimbardo Prison Experiment

A number of students were hired for a summer job. Zimbardo, the psychologist turned his basement into a prison, with real prison cells. He divided the group in half. One half were prisoners (who wore suits with numbers and that is how they were addressed) and the other the guards. And Zimbardo himself became the Prison Warden. The first few HOURS of this experiment already started going to hell. The prisoners would want to go to sleep and the guards would not let them as they kept banging on the door everytime they tried to sleep. When the prisoners started protesting the guards would take them out in the middle of the night while they were half asleep and make them do push ups and order them around. Later the guards got fire extinguishers and used them on one of the prisoners who seemed to be going hysterical. The prisoners started screaming and banging on the doors and finally they started to plan a break-out. Zimbardo who was long absorbed in this experiment went nuts when he heard they wanted to break out. He called the police and told them that if male students were to be seen wearing prison suits that they should arrest them and bring them back. As the prison warden he got very deeply absorbed into this as he was the most poweful in this experiment and other psychologists condemned him as he broke many ethical rules that experimenters must use.

This went so bad that when the parents of the prisoners came to visit, the prisoners were told not to say a word about what is happening and they were clothed properly and allowed to be bathed. And to the surprise of everyone, they did not say a single word. Not a complaint!

This happened in the course of 72 HOURS. 72 hours ONLY.
This proves many things about the human being.

So when someone asks a question like "How can a human being ever do what the Nazis did?" You can now tell them of these experiments. Those that served for the Nazi regime were human beings, they were born just like you and me and did not carry some sort of alien probe up their ass. It wasn't their nature to hate jews and homosexuals but it is the human being's nature to do the acts committed then (and that are committed TODAY!) when confronted with a superior.

So is another Nazi Regime possible? YES
Is history repeating itself? YES
Are people being murdered and trampled over because of power? YES.
This will never stop. If any of you are familiar with Lord of the Rings just think about that as a wonderful analogy of this disgusting feature that we human beings carry. The ring was powerful and everyone wanted it but the ring, if grasped by someone with the mental capacity to wield it and not be destroyed then they would do evil things as the ring is evil and it is power. Lord of the Rings should be seen as a fictional story but the points it makes are not fiction and cannot be overlooked! The philosophy of Lord of the Rings is very powerful and and true.

So who are these modern day Nazis? And what are they doing?
Of course modern day media would disagree as would anyone who follows the media and everyone who is patriotic to their beloved powerful ruling class.

Look at Abu Ghraib
Look at Palestine and Israel
Look at the AIDS problem
Look at the "War on Terror"
Look at the daily lies that governments stuff people
Look at the daily lies that corporate media that are owned by war-machines stuff people
Look at chechnya
Look at all the other areas around the world where people are dying of poverty and are being killed and oppressed and the media so wonderfully represses this from the public but I have a feeling that so much crap has been absorbed by the masses that even if they were shown all the crap in the world they would not get off there couch...because they might miss their episode of the Family Guy or Friends.

It is all because of power. It only takes mere hours to turn someone from a nice, caring person into a machine of greed and murder.
This greed is what fosters what I said in the introduction of this write-up. It grows and grows that the powerful only have eyes on the things that make THEM powerful. Why should they care if people are being killed? That's not their problem no? Atleast that's what they would think.

And now you see this everywhere. The masses more concerned with their own achievements and with their own lifestyles and their enjoyments of life that they are blind and uncaring. There was a day when I wanted to be rich, and be better. I looked down at the beggers and frowned thinking "why dont they get a job" or "that's what happens when people don't get an education". I was an idiot too.

Finally I want to say that while so many people believe that they are happy and free that they should think again. No one is liberated until everyone is. I believe in a world where every single person can feed themsleves and clothe themselves and their children. The world is full of resources for this. I believe that humans CAN and WILL live at peace with each other as long as the balance of power stays the same eveywhere. Racism, prejudice, and similar things which make people act violent towards others are just a by-product...an illness that this society breeds and they can be excorcised. This type of society existed before, centuries ago when the only trouble people had was how to get over bad weather. And just like history repeats itself I think we can go back to such a time of REAL liberty. I have heard a quote before about how this world will become a better place if everyone tried to be their best. I think that quote is stupid and ridiculous because to parahprase psychologist Carl Rogers and Maslow: To achieve self-actualization (to be your best) you will have to have all your basic necessities fulfilled: Food, clothes, shelter, love. Not everyone has food and clothing...far too many don't. Love is scarce in this world because of the daily stress and competition and lust seems to prevail over love. So while some have these, many others dont and this signifies an imbalance of power and as long as you have an imbalance of power you will have oppression and the gap will keep widening as the poor get poorer and the rich get richer today. So instead of striving for self-actualization people strived to get a balance of power I can conclude from so many scientific experiments and facts that this world WILL become a better place.