The Threefold Rule states that whatever you do, good or bad, comes back to you three times over.
These atrocities were committed in our names, in the name of America and the American people.
What kind of hideous karmic backlash is headed our way to atone for this?
The version I'm familiar with is a law of SEVENFOLD return.
Careful what you do.
Or what you let others do for you.
I caught the Wired story last week. I wasn't suprised, given the Senate testimony back in 2003/04.
The last 7 years have been a replay of Arendt's "Eichman in Jerusalem."
Monstorous evil IS so very ordinary, or to use Arendt's observation, banal. So we have pictures of very young US soldiers posing with those they tortured, maimed, abused.
And because it is so ordinary, it is very hard for the US populace to react, which then makes the horror even greater.
And so it goes, so it goes...
Of course, this makes matters extremely simple for American servicemen and service women who fall into unfriendly hands.
MAKE SURE that you save one bullet for yourself.
"There are some programs, starting in the fifth grade, which get kids to think about the heroic mentality, the heroic imagination."
I've heard of programs that start even earlier, where 4th graders are expected on a 1-to-1 to help a 1st grade "buddy" adapt to a new school environment. It's not about heroism, but rather about its cousin: empathy for those with less power.
These programs should be more widespread, especially since the default message from 7th grade on in most American schools, by both students and administrators (and the media), is precisely the opposite of the ones delivered in these programs Zimbardo mentions: be a "team player" (in the corporate BS sense of the term), don't buck authority, conform, you're powerless to change things here. And all that has the potential to create far less positive social deviants, like the guards at Abu Ghraib.
my kids school dose the buddy thing with 4th graders adn kindergardenrs..works great form what we can tell...hell of a lot better then my highschools pet freshmen system (well the school didn't run that, we students did...treated a freshman liek a personal slave for a year...ahh the fun..the fun.)
as for the arugrab issue, this is the obvious out come...look at all the old "prision" experiment films (scary stuff), or prior to that the elctorshock expermiments...its amazing the evil that men will do.
Not surprising at all, moonglum.
NOT.
Nearly ALL OF US have seen this when socialization starts kicking in - late grade school through high school. But by the high school years, it usually isn't as raw and naked.
But it's still there. The feral dingo viciousness. The pack as a whole turning on the members perceived to be weakest. And tearing and ripping at them by whatever means are practical and permitted.
Didn't we talk about John Katz' "Hellmouth" series just a couple of weeks ago?
We are surprised by these behaviors as adults because most of us have either edited out those memories, or else we just "don't think about them". This is made easy for us by our culture. We are addicted to the lie, and to hypocrisy. We are habituated to both from infancy.
So we fail to pick up on behaviors that must be rooted out to ensure the society's long term health. So the society as a whole is sick and hence is also massively dysfunctional.
How much vicarious sadism-by-proxy do you think the 27 percenters indulge in when they read about places like Abu Ghraib? That's part of why they defend it!
How many jokes have you heard about homosexual rape in prisons?
This demon lives in every single last god-damned one of us. No exceptions. Nobody left out. Nobody "too good". "All" means ALL. Some express it without understanding what it is they do or why. Others bottle it up and deny it and pretend to themselves. Some few look at the dark place straight on and come to terms with it.
The moment you forget that it's in you, your vulnerability to the temptation is multiplied.
for the story of a young man who did not succumb please read:
the sutras of abu graib
it's riveting and well done. a young man, right there in the middle of that shit, refused to succumb.
if you want to find your hero in this cesspool, here's your boy. i have talked with him and have corresponded with him and he is a sincere, earnest and forthright young man. he writes well too.
he is now engaged with other veterans trying to stop this madness.
my personal, battlefield experience with torture and torturers
no photos. work safe, maybe not nausea safe. don't know.
Jesse,
I know it was hard for you, but thank you for tagging this up. I normally don't view WiReD as a hotbed of social commentary but it's the only piece I've seen in a big name pub that has "gone there" RE the new photos/evidence.
Stormcrow hits teh nail on the head...any one of us could have been those tourcheres...peer pressure, beign "part of the team" are very powerful compelling forces...we all have the capacity to be monsters. that is why dealing witht that darkness insied all of us is so important from an early age.
full circle back to evan...takeign away the video games will not stop the violence..in fact games give a nondistructive outlets for those base feelings. you stop the violence by stopeign the bullies...stop the dark urges, stop the monsters when they are minor and you will not get as many antiheros (and yes the shooters are the antiheros not the monters, they are reacting to the abuse, to the powerlessness in an over the top way...but it is a reaction)
You're welcome Jen.
Thank you for sending it.
People need to know they can make a difference. It's part of what we live and breath here at GNB...
Redemption from the demons which live in all of us. That through talking and communicating, we can get through the bad times.
Are the school years that vicious everywhere, or is there something peculiarly pathological about some societies, including ours? 
IBW...they are jsut as vicious in asian and european cultures if their plays and literature are any thing to go by, not sure about indian...
I knwo that bullying was a hugh problem in japan...probably still is
Bullying was a huge problem when I was growing up, and I'm from oh-so-nice Canada. It truly lives in all of us.
Human nature being what it is, I wonder if Asimov's Solarians had the right idea after all.
I suppose the only way to get rid of bullying would be to spend the time and money to train enough adults to keep closer surveillance on the youngsters and nip bullying in the bud.
Fat chance of that. 
Dear God, if you think the photos are bad, don't read the comments. The entire 27% is over there, howling about "24" ticking bomb scenarios and Islamofacsists cutting off heads and supporting the TROOOOOOPS.
What country do y'all want to move to?
"What kind of hideous karmic backlash is headed our way?"--Wanderer
I'm thinking, at least, the Second Great Depression.
IBW part of the problem is a lot of the educators are bullies themsleves..or are into the whole status thing so they look the other way when alphas pick on the betas and omegas...more over they make damm sure that the omegas are punished for defendign themselves.
MG at 8:56--Then is there some way to re-educate the educators?
If not, then the only solution would be if, in the future, AI technology is advanced enough and cheap enough that each child can have his/her own artificial teacher, eliminating the necessity to bring them together in schools at all.
Or--a genuinely safe drug that would stifle aggressive and status-seeking impulses.
Until one of those 3 things can happen, Sartre was correct: "Hell is other people".
Again, maybe Asimov's Solarians came close to the right idea.
I think I am fortunate to spend most of my time alone; I live alone, work mostly alone, and most of my social interaction comes in the safe, sterile environment of the Web.
Maybe JD in "Heathers" was correct when he said that the only place people of different social types could live together happily was Heaven--although, of course, he chose the wrong approach to the problem.
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