When you think of an evil person, what's the first thought that comes to your mind?
A mad scientist cackling as steam enclouds him from pouring dangerous chemicals together? Maybe a bully who pushed down a little kid for being smaller than him? Or perhaps your mind automatically crosses to the police officer who shot that innocent girl? Maybe even Hitler..
But when it all comes together, what if the evil is inside ourselves?
Typically as people, we think highly of ourselves. "Oh, I could never hurt someone." "I could never take the life of another fellow human being." "I'm a good person, who refuses to cause damage to another person."
But you know what could easily change that perspective?
Power.
You see many examples of power in history, and even today. You don't think much of people in a position of power, because of the fact that our government is here to keep someone in complete power in check. What about everyday examples of power we don't typically see?
Police Officers for examples. I'm sure you've heard of many cases of police brutality over the past two years. With Ferguson, to that cop beating up a teen for loitering, to the several cases that formed the saying 'Black Lives Matter'. But, what causes someone who was sworn to protect it's citizens to take such a dramatic turn?
Power.
The most innocent person can easily change into a twisted mind in the blink of an eye with the feeling of power and control over another person. Don't believe me? Let's take a look at many examples of experiments
In 1971, a newspaper ad called for volunteers to study the psychological effects of prison. With over 70 applicants, 24 college students from Canada and the U.S. were gathered to perform in what we know today as the Stanford Prison Experiment. Randomized students were chosen to either be guards or prisoners. Starting off to make it seem like a real life prison, the guards quickly began to work at dehumanizing the prisoners. The guards were not given any specific training and were to enforce the law on their own terms. That was the mistake that the people conducting this experiment caused. To enforce the law, they quickly worked at desocializing the prisoners such as we see in real prisons. We see many examples of the guards being typically cruel to the prisons, such as when they stripped them naked or sprayed them with hoses. The prisoners' life began to fall on the guards, as they soon controlled everything they did. With there being three types of guards, there were the cruelest who enjoyed being in a position of power. Their personality tests would have never predicted this sense of evilness inside these guards' minds. Some of the guards began behaving sadistically, and the "good" guards felt powerless to stop them and kept quiet as prisoners continued to be abused. When the researchers were no longer there at night, videotapes had been recorded of the guards abusing their power and prisoners simply because they were bored.
What does that tell you? Us as people have little regard for human lives, and in a position of power, the value of humans are below us. Abuse of power is commonly seen today, as a method of control over people. We see this in several other countries, such as North Korea. With Kim Jong-Un's reign of terror, he controls his citizens by complete fear. Or even in Africa, we see children being forced into war. The people who are supposed to lead them into war sexually abuse them, just because they can. Back then, Hitler abused his power to control people. In concentration camps, guards abused prisoners due to simply the fact that they viewed the prisoners below them and that their value was very little. Even in our society in the US, we see several instances of this. From a kid who picks on the littlest kid to make himself feel in more control, to cops who are able to push around people because they know that they'll get away with it.
You may not think it, but everyone has a sense of evil in them deeply tucked away. No human is innocent, no matter how sweet you may seem on the outside. Power changes us as people, and that's what is wrong with today's world.
Read more on the Stanford Prison Experiment
Another example of people in power abusing it, The Milgram Shock Experiment
