Wow!

Zimbardo book, The Lucifer Effect, is complex but on target, I think. It is perhaps biting off more then we can chew. But _Sky is starting to cut it into smaller pieces when she asks which steps or processes in the 10 step program are easier and harder for each of us.

For me it might be easier to say "I made a mistake," to feel and say I am responsible, to respect just authority and rebel against unjust acts, and to want group acceptance and also want my independence and being aware of how a situation is framed by me or someone else.

It is probably harder for me to stay mindful, to say "I am me, the best I can be," hard to try to appraise all three past, present and future perspectives, I might give up my freedoms in order to have the illusion of protection, it is hard to oppose unjust systems because I don't recognize them or personally benefit from them and hard to see the influence of another person's frame of reference.

It is hard for me to say I want to change my ways of resisting bad influences, partly because there are too many things to lead you astray...there are so many ways of being influenced. I'll mention a couple that stands out during the election debates: (1) the situation of debating (in contrast to a careful discussion) leads all the candidates to draft overly certain solutions to the major problems--immigration, health care, taxation, peace, etc. There is almost no emperical evidence that any candidates ideas will work in the real world or that unwanted consequences will not occur over time. Our solutions, to be a practical, honest approach, should be more tentative and should call for more experimentation along the way.

(2) This over-confidence can be seen in their frequent phrase of "when I am president I will do so and so." That is a stupid statement because every one knows how difficult it is for anything to be done, even for the president. The founding fathers were probably wise to build in so many checks and balances. But candidates deny reality and pretend they would be all-powerful. And we buy their delusions (which they don't truly believe.

Ideas like Zimbardo's are very complex...and I think very important but very hard to teach people to recognize and control.

drclay