“Historically, the most terrible things--war, genocide, and slavery--have resulted not from disobedience, but from obedience."
-Howard Zinn
Howard Zinn was basically stating that the majority of terrible things that have happened were because people where told to do so or people conformed to what was happening around them even when they knew it was wrong. I do agree with his statement because that is the world we live in, people idolize and follow things they never fully understand. A lot of people go to war or help commit sins such as genocide or slavery thinking they are fighting for a better cause and sometimes in war that is true but in reality nothing justifies taking a life or degrading a human to cruel and injustice punishment.
Reflection
The Stanford Prison Experiment was created in order to study conformity and test if the brutality of guards that is usually reported towards inmates are due to sadistic personalities or have more to do with the environment. When students who were chosen after being psychologically evaluated were placed into their roles (Guard or Prisoner), shortly after they began to settle into their roles. Guards became more aggressive and prisoners became more submissive. Those who were evaluated without any psychological problems ( Prisoners) began to develop them and behavioral problems as well, almost developing deep depression they had to be released from the experiment. It was concluded that people will conform to the social roles that they are expected to play, especially if the roles are strongly stereotyped like those of major authority figures such as guards. Therefore, the roles people play can not only shape their attitudes but their behavior as well.
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