The experiment lasted only six days and was forced to stop. I have to say that this is a shocking experimental result. Together with the planners, we witnessed the whole process through clearer screens and pictures.
This is not an experiment, not a simulated prison, this is a real prison, but just a prison of a professor of psychology. After the experiment was stopped, the boys who were the subjects of the experiment came to this conclusion.
This experiment was a cruel process. In my opinion, it is a collective hypnosis.
How long does it take to change a person? I think many people have asked this before. After watching the movie, my heart palpitated suddenly. Maybe time never changes people, but it's where they are.
A group of Stanford college students were randomly divided into prison guards and prisoners. They are not real prison guards or prisoners, their distinction originated from clothing. Prison guards have neat uniforms and sunglasses; prisoners wear linen skirts, silk stockings, hoods, and fetters. Clothing distinguishes identities, and of course it also symbolizes power, so a hypnosis around power begins.
I read Foucault's "Discipline and Punishment" before, and saw the "psychology of rights" in a half-knowledge, and suddenly discovered that it resides in various scenes. Power, seemingly an indefinable thing, is in fact galloping across various fields. At first I felt that Foucault exaggerated the role of "power" too much. The "Stanford Prison Experiment" shocked me. At least in a specific environment like "prison", we saw the power of power.
I found an interesting phenomenon in the movie. The person who plays the prison guard can quickly enter the role, but the prisoner is not. I have also wondered before, how can those vicious criminals disappear in prison? No one is born a prisoner, and the process of entering a prison to serve a sentence with a prisoner’s genes is the process of becoming a prisoner.
The Stanford Prison Experiment simulates the daily life of the prison and also gave us a handbook, "How to Make People a Good Prisoner".
First, strip off his personality: uniform clothing (even women's clothing), hairstyle, and almost no personal belongings except a bed, restricting personal hobbies. They stand together naked, there is no difference.
Secondly, take his name, a number is the representative, forget the identity of the past, forget the identity of the inmates, and accept the position given to them by the prison. When the others in the prison were asked to shout "891 is a bad prisoner" in unison, 891 wept bitterly and was on the verge of collapse. He accepted the identification of his identity. He forgot his name and that this was just an experiment. I believe He is a prisoner 891.
Thirdly, to limit his language, language is related to thinking, or language is thinking. If you control language, you control ideology. vice versa. The prison guards required the prisoners to bring "respected Mr. Corrector" when replying, and the prison guards represented the justice of the judiciary. The priest of the prison acts as an ideological leader and a preacher of God. They were intimidated by two kinds of "noble", and they did not express their dissatisfaction with the prison during the visits of relatives and friends, and behaved like good prisoners.
Finally, and of course the most critical, let him forget freedom. It is not just the limitation of physical freedom that makes him lose the concept of time, live like years, and consume his will, as if he does not deserve to have freedom.
This is a hypnosis. The students were confined to a specific scene, role-playing, and finally became the person in the role, even the planner was involved.
In the movie, the most interesting thing is that the professor’s colleague asks, what are the independent variables of your experiment?
This reminds me of Old Man Cohen's "Who by fire", who is on fire and who is drowning in water? When the old man received a call from God and pronounced his destiny, he replied: "Who shall I say is calling?"
Prison guards are happy to control prisoners, prisoners are happy to control their own groups, and professors, wardens, are happy to control their prisons. When he shouted, "This is my prison, I can't let it be destroyed like this." His girlfriend was shocked, because he had also been deeply involved in the experiment, forgot his identity, and became a part of the experiment.
Power is difficult to define, but you can define others, which is a kind of power.
This is a heartbreaking movie, but it is by no means a desperate movie. In the movie, there is a prison guard who never participated in the abuse of his peers, and he did not stop it. When the abuse became more and more intense, he took it off. Own sunglasses. Perhaps in this experiment, he was the only one who was not thoroughly hypnotized. When the experiment finally couldn't control the professor rushing into the experimental area and shouting: "The experiment is over!", everyone did not react for a while, he could only
cry and said, "Stanford Prison is closed." The boys finally Suddenly realized.
After watching the movie, I couldn't calm down for a long time. What can a good person be like? The line between good and bad suddenly became a little ridiculous. In the experiment, the prison guard who symbolizes "good" turned into a complete bastard, while the prisoner who played the role of the bad guy accepted it, and in the end even thought that everything was what he deserved, and endurance became a quality.
Presumably after watching the movie, we will all ask ourselves, if I were a prison guard, would I be the perpetrator? Or, if I were a prisoner, would I resist?
Of course these can only be imaginary, and fortunately they are all imaginary.
The result of the experiment undoubtedly makes people doubt humanity, but it is more vigilant.
People are always happy to control, just like the popular "hold" in the past, they always want to hold everything. "Control" will bring people a sense of existence, security, pride, and even pleasure. We are alive, but we are always proving our existence in various ways. Of course, this kind of proof cannot come from oneself, but from others. Seeing one's own influence on others is a kind of proof. Who doesn't want to stand in the center of the world, I mean your own world here.
As a result, people are more and more enthusiastic about power and money, and want to have more and manipulate more. Desire urges people to chase, but also waits with open mouth to devour those who are chasing. As a result, more and more people are manipulated by power and money. This is not surprising.
But what is the significance of the Stanford prison experiment? Tell us that everyone can be Lucifer?
Perhaps, more than that.
This experiment shows a collective hypnosis, but you who are awake have the opportunity to be the person who is not hypnotized.
The hypnosis of power and desire is subtle. If you can take off the sunglasses of your identity, stay awake, and keep yourself clean, it will not be difficult.
I know I am a hypnotized person. So I choose to stay away and can't stand the challenge, so I choose to stay away from the challenge.
But there is another question hidden here, are you really afraid of becoming Lucifer? Or are you eager for it too?
There is no good or evil in the human mind, and it varies from event to event.
"Prison" is everywhere, no matter what position you are in, no matter you make rules or are trapped in it, respect, treat others, and treat yourself.
Finally, hope that your good deeds can be exchanged for more pleasure than doing evil.
Recommend Leonard Cohen "Who by fire"
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