CBCs-The Big Picture w/ Avi Lewis - Human Behaviours

[QuestionAll...]

Wondering if anyone else here caught last nights show.

I was interrupted with visits and phone calls so didn't catch the whole show, but what I did see was a truly interesting in depth discussion.

The format of the show is a town hall discussion after viewing a documentary. Last nights doc was based on human behaviour and experiments done to see how far an otherwise normal, decent person would go when/if they had the power to inflict pain and hardship on others and/or 'blame' someone of authority above them. Seems that most of us are very prone and there are few 'heroes' that would buck the system.

One of the items the documentary had were the Stanford (?) experiment of the 60s. Where volunteers were divided into two groups in a prison setup - guards and detainees. And how these basically good normal everyday people (the guards) turned into abusive overlords, just because they could and no one told them to stop. The experiment did stop short, after only 6 days, because the volunteer test detainess were having nervous breakdowns

Most of the talk revolved around Abu Graib in the after discussion. Janis Karpinski was one of the guests as well as a hand full of others (most intriquing knowledgeable people which I didn't catch names of. I believe one guest was an author, Hedges I believe his name was. Impressive thinker.)

Hopefully I can find a transcript of the show if this topic stays around long enough.

Anyone else see?

[QuestionAll...]

1. link to Stanford experiments here

http://www.prisonexp.org/

A Simulation Study of the
Psychology of Imprisonment
Conducted at Stanford University


Welcome to the Stanford Prison Experiment web site, which features an extensive slide show and information about this classic psychology experiment, including parallels with the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib. What happens when you put good people in an evil place? Does humanity win over evil, or does evil triumph? These are some of the questions we posed in this dramatic simulation of prison life conducted in the summer of 1971 at Stanford University.

How we went about testing these questions and what we found may astound you. Our planned two-week investigation into the psychology of prison life had to be ended prematurely after only six days because of what the situation was doing to the college students who participated. In only a few days, our guards became sadistic and our prisoners became depressed and showed signs of extreme stress. Please join me on a slide tour describing this experiment and uncovering what it tells us about the nature of Human Nature.

[QuestionAll...]

2. link to The Big Picture

http://www.cbc.ca/bigpicture/
My browser can't read it properly tho so can't see if transcripts are available.

[salvorhardin]

3. Here's the show's website

http://www.cbc.ca/bigpicture/human.html

The guests were:
Ret. Colonel Chris Corrigan, Trained Canadian officers leading Afghanistan mission
Sherene Razack, Author, Dark Threats and White Knights
Alex Gibney, Filmmaker, The Human Behavior Experiments
Chris Hedges, Author, War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning
Aidan Delgado, Former Soldier at Abu Ghraib prison
Janis Karpinski, Former Brigadier General in charge of Abu Ghraib prison
Barbara Coloroso, Author, Just Because It's Not Wrong Doesn't Make It Right
Deepak Obhrai, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs
Omar Samad, Afghanistan Ambassador to Canada

[The2ndWheel]

4. No, but I've seen the doumentary numerous times

I was always drawn to the Milgram Experiment myself. Don't really know why, some guy told me to watch it.

Was it Chris Hedges?

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/War_Peace/War_Gives_Meaning.html

[QuestionAll...]

5. yes, it was Hedges. see salvors link above for the lineup.nt