Power has a tendency to corrupt

[Inyan]

It was John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton (Lord Acton) who originally wrote "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men."

http://www.prisonexp.org/

Now, if your familiar with Philip Zimbardo and this famous psychology experiment... go to this website and really go through it with a magnifying glass. Watch all of the video clips. It will change your life forever this is real. Expect nothing less.

power |ˈpou(-ə)r|

noun

1 the ability to do something or act in a particular way, esp. as a faculty or quality : the power of speech | [with infinitive ] the power to raise the dead | ( powers) his powers of concentration.

2 the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behavior of others or the course of events : the idea that men should have power over women | she had me under her power.

• political or social authority or control, esp. that exercised by a government : the party had been in power for eight years | [as adj. ] a power struggle.

• a right or authority that is given or delegated to a person or body : police do not have the power to stop and search | emergency powers.

Control, the locus of control... internal or external... who do we give control to and how does this affect our health and well-being? These are some things to think about at any rate for those of you involved in a religion for example... control is often handed over to the religious leaders in one form or another. Control is given to the government, police, school teachers, etc. How much control do we give and do we give too much control sometimes and at other times deny our own internal power to control and influence? Anyone that is looked at as being an authority figure to us personally... do we give them more control than we should or do we fail to question where we should question as we fail to realize that the experts fall into their role and are molded into it simply because of our perception of them in that position. Any excuse becomes a good excuse and we fail to think for ourselves. Food for thought.

[Undergrounder]

There's a televised Zimbardo experiment showing on cable TV in February called 'The Experiment'.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1986889.stm

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2002/jan/24/bbc.socialsciences

[Inyan]

There's a televised Zimbardo experiment showing on cable TV in February called 'The Experiment'.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1986889.stm

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2002/jan/24/bbc.socialsciences

I like the links you gave. This alone, but combined with other psychological research into who we are certainly gets one to thinking that, "We don't really know ourselves" as well as giving some insights into, "The illusory nature of self and reality in general." I think this is the reason that many entheogenic substances are feared. They help to break through the illusion of reality by linking ones consciousness into an alternate reality while at the same time strengthening the power of the mind to shape reality just as it is shaped consciously or unconsciously by all that live in what we call reality. The illusion of power, the illusion of control... in the end there is just "being" and how one perceives or relates to these perceptions.

[Garbage]

They have been lowering the bar for decades.

[Undergrounder]

Well said Inyan.. we're just animals that think we're smarter than other animals..

[baphomet]

I've seen a couple of documentaries on the stanford prison experiment, mass psychology & social engineering interests me a lot.

I posted this once before in the documentary thread but for those who share my interest, this is about the best documentary ever made on the subject http://video.google.com.au/videosearch?hl=...a=N&tab=wv#

Edited January 31, 2009 by baphomet