An authority, like a military officer, has some amount of humanity and it is the situation that masks the existence of their humanity. The situational pressures that the soldiers face and the responsibility to obey orders is a reason for suppressing their morals. The pliability of their humanity is what makes them cave in to those pressures created by the situation and responsibilities. Philip Zimbardo states in his article, “Revisiting the Stanford Prison Experiment: a Lesson in the Power of Situation,” that “human nature was more pliable than previously imagined and more responsive to situational pressures” (para 2). The author is basically trying to demonstrate that the humanity or values of a person are easily transformed for the worst. It is the conflict of interest that causes the transformation of their humanity into something cruel and immoral. It is not that the military officers or authority figures are lacking humanity; it is more that they choose to ignore their morals and values by dehumanizing and abusing the prisoners. Many people would say that what the soldiers are doing to the prisoners is in fact the correct treatment and that they deserve to be tortured, since they are so called “terrorists.” But, what about the ones who are or maybe innocent? Do they deserve the torture and mental abuse? It is a matter of how would Americans feel if our people or American military officers were treated in this abusive and degrading manner. Our country and our people would not be happy if American soldiers were mistreated and this will probably end up happening has revenge.
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