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Bad Barrels vs. Bad Apples


Abu Ghraib System: Phillip Zimbardo

  • Zimbardo was an insider to Abu Ghraib, after the fact.
    • He saw: A corrupt “American system".
    • He concluded: “The Problem Is Not About Bad Apples In A Barrel, It Is About Bad Barrels.” (Created, of course, by a few high-level Bad Apples!)

    It is the “SYSTEM” in other words. Let's call it the Abu Ghraib System. This term needs to be in the American lexicon as a reminder that: Yes, it actually happened here.

    A wise contributor to RoadtoPeace adds:

      "Human beings take considerably more of their ethical values from the particular system they happen to be in at the time than you would ever have thought possible."

    He came to Zimbardo's insight all on his own, well before the book on the Stanford Prison Experiment experiment was published.

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    Posted by RoadToPeace on Friday, September 14, 2007.

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