South Africa – A modern day “Zimbardo Experiment” By Mike Smith Cape Town – 6 April 2008
In 1971, Dr Phillip Zimbardo of the Stanford University, conducted his infamous and controversial “Prison Experiment”. Most scholars of Psychology agree that to replicate this experiment today will be impossible, because of human rights. The world will simply not allow this to happen.
Yet we see this experiment being replicated on a grandiose scale and the world sits and watches, doing nothing. The Zimbardo experiment is being carried out in South Africa as you are reading this.
The experiment
The entire experiment can be seen on Dr Zimbardo’s website
http://www.prisonexp.org/Here are the main points:Dr Zimbardo used volunteers; students he paid $15 a day. Dr Zimbardo was looking for some answers to his questions. What happens when good people are put in positions of authority in an evil place? Would evil triumph or would humanity prevail?
Twenty four normal, healthy, intelligent, white students were selected and split up into “Prisoners” and “Guards”. The basement of the university was used as cells. The experiment was suppose to last 14 days, but was cancelled after six days, because of what it did to the students. The “Guards” became extremely sadistic and the “Prisoners” severely depressed and showing signs of extreme stress.
Over the next few days you saw “Guards” and “Prisoners” really getting into their roles; prisoners rebelling, Guards suppressing them, etc. if you read the report it is quite shocking.
Less than 36 hours into the experiment one student began suffering from acute emotional disturbance, disorganized thinking, uncontrollable crying, and rage, telling other prisoners, "You can't leave. You can't quit."
The guards made the prisoners suffer, forcing them to do menial, repetitive work such as cleaning out toilet bowls with their bare hands. The guards had prisoners do push-ups, jumping jacks, whatever the guards could think up, and they increased the length of the counts to several hours each.
One prisoner (#819) broke out in tears and couldn’t handle it any more. Zimbardo told him to go wait in another room. One of the guards lined up the other prisoners and had them chant aloud: "Prisoner #819 is a bad prisoner. Because of what Prisoner #819 did, my cell is a mess, Mr. Correctional Officer." They shouted this statement in unison a dozen times.
Zimbardo realised that #819 could hear the chanting and raced back to the room. This is how he accounts it:
“I suggested we leave, but he refused. Through his tears, he said he could not leave because the others had labelled him a bad prisoner. Even though he was feeling sick, he wanted to go back and prove he was not a bad prisoner. At that point I said, "Listen, you are not #819. You are [his name], and my name is Dr. Zimbardo. I am a psychologist, not a prison superintendent, and this is not a real prison. This is just an experiment, and those are students, not prisoners, just like you. Let's go."
He stopped crying suddenly, looked up at me like a small child awakened from a nightmare, and replied, "Okay, let's go."
Another prisoner called #416 went on a hunger strike. When he wouldn’t eat after several attempts from the guards, they put him in solitary confinement for three hours and still he refused to eat.
At this point #416 should have been a hero to the other prisoners. But instead, the others saw him as a troublemaker. The head guard then exploited this feeling by giving prisoners a choice. They could have #416 come out of solitary if they were willing to give up their blanket, or they could leave #416 in solitary all night.
Most elected to keep their blanket and let their fellow prisoner suffer in solitary all night.
The Parallels to the New South AfricaThere is little doubt in my mind that since 1994, Afrikaners in the “New South Africa” find themselves in the roles of the prisoners and that the black ANC supporters find themselves in the roles of the guards.
We see on a daily basis that blacks are becoming increasingly more sadistic. Blacks are attacking whites on farms and in their homes, often for no financial gain. They torture whites for hours without stealing anything. This corresponds perfectly with Dr Zimbardo’s experiment where the guards worked overtime for no additional pay, just for the joy of punishing the prisoners. Blacks in South Africa think it is their duty to punish whites and thoroughly enjoy it, just like Zimbardo’s guards.
Whites in South Africa, and in particular Afrikaners, accept their roles as “Prisoners”. They are being made to feel so by the ANC, who tells them on a daily basis that they are “Bad Prisoners” just like #819. They feel they deserve the punishment and when told that they are not prisoners and that they can leave, they refuse to. They want to stay and prove that they are NOT “Bad Prisoners”.
Further, Afrikaners and whites treat their rebels like prisoner #416. Instead of calling them “Heroes”, they call them “Troublemakers”. This “Bystander Apathy” is sickening in the “New, Improved, South Africa”. Afrikaners will stand and watch their women and children being raped and slaughtered, tortured with boiling water for hours, but won’t lift a finger to help. They are like deer that are stunned by the lights of an oncoming truck.
But there is hope. There is a light shining at the end of the tunnel. In one of my previous posts, I called on the ANC to step it up a gear. I want them to oppress the Afrikaners more. Why? It is founded in a letter that Dr Zimbardo received from a REAL prisoner of an Ohio penitentiary after being in solitary confinement for 37 months! He writes:
"I was recently released from solitary confinement after being held therein for thirty-seven months. The silence system was imposed upon me and if I even whispered to the man in the next cell resulted in being beaten by guards, sprayed with chemical mace, black jacked, stomped, and thrown into a strip cell naked to sleep on a concrete floor without bedding, covering, wash basin, or even a toilet....I know that thieves must be punished, and I don't justify stealing even though I am a thief myself.
But now I don't think I will be a thief when I am released. No, I am not rehabilitated either. It is just that I no longer think of becoming wealthy or stealing. I now only think of killing -- killing those who have beaten me and treated me as if I were a dog. I hope and pray for the sake of my own soul and future life of freedom that I am able to overcome the bitterness and hatred which eats daily at my soul. But I know to overcome it will not be easy."
So yes Mr. Zuma.
Take cognizance of this fact. The Afrikaners are waiting for that day that they will be free just like you, a one time prisoner, waited. The resentment amongst the Afrikaner youths are growing, because they are realizing that they are NOT prisoners and are being punished for things that happened before they were even born.
You think you know Afrikaners because you engage in dialogue with them…I talk to them when you are not around. I hear what is REALLY going on in their minds. They tell me things that they will never repeat around a table with you.
Let me tell you Mr. Zuma…The Afrikaners are starting to sing, “Bring me my machine gun!”In fact, most of them can’t wait to start shooting and slitting throats. Most of them can think of nothing else, nowadays. They live for that day that they will be given a chance to avenge their mothers and sisters who were brutally raped and murdered.
So my advice to you and the ANC, Mr Zuma, is to keep up the oppression of Afrikaners. I know them intimately. They are a nice, peace loving, and G-d-fearing people, until it becomes time not to be nice. See, Afrikaners never started any of the wars on this continent, but if you want to LOSE a war…then the Afrikaner is your man! Start a war with Afrikaners and you will see what I am talking about. Don’t think numerical superiority will help you either. Afrikaners don’t back down in the face of numbers. Ask the Zulus and the British.
Ask the Cubans and the Russians. Afrikaners are true warriors. They pray for peace every day…with a rifle in their hands. They don’t want to fight, but if forced to, they will not back down and they won’t hold back. Every day you oppress them more, they just become tougher and more resentful.
It will just make it so much easier for them to avenge their dead at the end of the day.You better start listening Mr. Zuma, and listen closely. Not to your so called Afrikaner buddies like Dr Wingard around dinner, but keep your ear to the ground.
Zimbardo’s experiment proved that if you awaken the evil in normal, peace loving human beings, you are opening Pandora’s Box. Do you really want to go that way Mr. Zuma? Keep singing “Awuleth’ Umshini Wami”! De La Rey is saddling up his horse and he is coming! May G-d be with you, for I won’t be able to help you that day.
Listen to the REAL Afrikaners and give them a country of their own before it is too late.by Mike Smith
Topic: South Africa – A modern day “Zimbardo Experiment” (Read 1100 times)