Resident evil and liberalism
After conducting his Stanford University prison experiment, described earlier, Philip Zimbardo identified seven processes that grease the slopes of evil. He posits evil is the exercise of power against people that serves to corrupt their character. In both the Milgram and prison experiments it was situational power over others that arced participant’s humanity to the dark side. Zimbardo calls this the ‘Lucifer Effect’ and maintains it can exist in any situation, culture or economic, legal, power or political system. There is little doubt, given all the harm liberal social policy and neo-liberal economic activity has caused, that the resident evil in these two systems embraces all seven processes. By definition, therefore, both liberalism and corporatism are resident evils. The difficulty in seeing it this way lies in the apparent benefits both claim to bring to western culture’s table; government programmes and support for the less well-off, low cost consumer goods and a constant supply of everything a modern society needs and wants. A people ravaged by the Toynbee Effect, the Fuehrerprinzip, the normalcy bias and vacant expectation will be all but incapable of seeing past these factors.
Matt Ridley, in his book The Rational Optimist, [effectively] makes this case. He does acknowledge that the world could, in this century, descend into a dark abyss, but the main thrust of the book is that inexorable progress in producing food and things will make people happier and prosperous. Unfortunately, these variables are poor guarantees of civilisational survival. Most now collapsed civilisations were well fed, clothed and provided for and yet they still fell apart. If western civilisation goes the same way there is nothing more or equally civilised to replace it. That is perhaps the most unique thing about the western world. It has achieved, far beyond any past or present alternative civilisation, unparalleled material progress and institutionalised human rights. Because it is so unique it cannot be allowed to collapse to the point where all the values it was based on no longer apply; only anarchy and totalitarianism will be available to replace it. Those in the West are therefore under a moral obligation to humanity to maintain it.
Zimbardo’s seven steps to evil are active in the liberal-corporatist experiment. Evil in this sense manifests itself, just as it does for Zimbardo, not just in physical and psychological harm but in lost human potential. That is the underlying point of this book. It will rise to the pinnacle of my intent in Part Four. Recognising evil relies on looking past the welter of things and activities to grasp the significance of latent or active human traits and behaviours. The evil in the liberal-corporatist drive for pre-eminence lies in their exploitation of negatively skewed human behaviour through all of Zimbardo’s seven steps. They are listed in the next table alongside some of the ways they play out under liberal and neo-liberal influence:
Zimbardo’s seven step ‘Lucifer Effect’ and the arguments for their presence
Steps to evil
The evidences around us…
Mindlessly taking the first small steps
The now historic shift, step by step, away from traditional western values and the lessons of history.
Moving towards greater governmental reach into people’s lives and social interactions.
The replacement of traditional public service values in government with a self-serving and self-appointed ruling class.
Failing to protect local economic relationships against the rising scale of large-scale global corporate activity.
The specialisation of social functions within government agencies and the disengagement of commerce from social good.
Allowing economic relationships to become increasingly inequitable
The dehumanisation of others
The classification of classes of people as requiring support using tax transfers that lessens their ability to achieve independent self-reliance.
The separation of humane care, justice, education, health and commerce from local community oversight and control, leading to lost social and human capital.
Corporations largely ignore social contexts and effects by reducing people to consumer and worker variables in cost-profit equations with little regard to social, economic and environmental damage.
Making it extremely difficult for the ordinary person to obtain justice or be able to exercise influence and responsibility within a properly democratic process.
The dehumanisation
of self
Treating rights as a licence to be socially and personally irresponsible.
Being careless about culture and its historic context.
Believing changed political and social contexts must be passively accepted for what they are. Refusing to objectively weigh contrary evidence.
Submitting to the tyranny of political correctness.
The diffusion of personal responsibility
Maintaining institutions should be responsible for fixing problems and divorcing their actions from any downstream perverse effects on others. Living largely self-centred lives low in self-awareness, with little real concern for others.
Blind obedience to authority
Passively assuming the status-quo is all there is and cannot be changed, as reflected in the widespread practice of simply accepting what government/corporate institutions do.
Uncritical conformity to group norms
The now widespread acceptance of non-traditional values and the easy acceptance of any new addition to those values, simply on the basis that values revisionism should be normalised even if there is plenty of evidence it causes harm (the social deficit). Ad hominin attacks under the rubrics of political correctness maintain this fiction.
Passive toleration of evil through inaction or indifference
The widespread uncritical and passive acceptance of the ‘social deficit’ – the obvious harmful effects of social policy and an indifference to the obvious failures of the liberal-corporate model. It is at this level that the summit of wickedness is realised.
Zimbardo’s seven step ‘Lucifer Effect’ and the arguments for their presence
Steps to evil
The evidences around us…
Mindlessly taking the first small steps
The now historic shift, step by step, away from traditional western values and the lessons of history.
Moving towards greater governmental reach into people’s lives and social interactions.
The replacement of traditional public service values in government with a self-serving and self-appointed ruling class.
Failing to protect local economic relationships against the rising scale of large-scale global corporate activity.
The specialisation of social functions within government agencies and the disengagement of commerce from social good.
Allowing economic relationships to become increasingly inequitable
The dehumanisation of others
The classification of classes of people as requiring support using tax transfers that lessens their ability to achieve independent self-reliance.
The separation of humane care, justice, education, health and commerce from local community oversight and control, leading to lost social and human capital.
Corporations largely ignore social contexts and effects by reducing people to consumer and worker variables in cost-profit equations with little regard to social, economic and environmental damage.
Making it extremely difficult for the ordinary person to obtain justice or be able to exercise influence and responsibility within a properly democratic process.
The dehumanisation
of self
Treating rights as a licence to be socially and personally irresponsible.
Being careless about culture and its historic context.
Believing changed political and social contexts must be passively accepted for what they are. Refusing to objectively weigh contrary evidence.
Submitting to the tyranny of political correctness.
The diffusion of personal responsibility
Maintaining institutions should be responsible for fixing problems and divorcing their actions from any downstream perverse effects on others. Living largely self-centred lives low in self-awareness, with little real concern for others.
Blind obedience to authority
Passively assuming the status-quo is all there is and cannot be changed, as reflected in the widespread practice of simply accepting what government/corporate institutions do.
Uncritical conformity to group norms
The now widespread acceptance of non-traditional values and the easy acceptance of any new addition to those values, simply on the basis that values revisionism should be normalised even if there is plenty of evidence it causes harm (the social deficit). Ad hominin attacks under the rubrics of political correctness maintain this fiction.
Passive toleration of evil through inaction or indifference
The widespread uncritical and passive acceptance of the ‘social deficit’ – the obvious harmful effects of social policy and an indifference to the obvious failures of the liberal-corporate model. It is at this level that the summit of wickedness is realised.
Zimbardo’s seven step ‘Lucifer Effect’ and the arguments for their presence
Steps to evil
The evidences around us…
Mindlessly taking the first small steps
The now historic shift, step by step, away from traditional western values and the lessons of history.
Moving towards greater governmental reach into people’s lives and social interactions.
The replacement of traditional public service values in government with a self-serving and self-appointed ruling class.
Failing to protect local economic relationships against the rising scale of large-scale global corporate activity.
The specialisation of social functions within government agencies and the disengagement of commerce from social good.
Allowing economic relationships to become increasingly inequitable
The dehumanisation of others
The classification of classes of people as requiring support using tax transfers that lessens their ability to achieve independent self-reliance.
The separation of humane care, justice, education, health and commerce from local community oversight and control, leading to lost social and human capital.
Corporations largely ignore social contexts and effects by reducing people to consumer and worker variables in cost-profit equations with little regard to social, economic and environmental damage.
Making it extremely difficult for the ordinary person to obtain justice or be able to exercise influence and responsibility within a properly democratic process.
The dehumanisation
of self
Treating rights as a licence to be socially and personally irresponsible.
Being careless about culture and its historic context.
Believing changed political and social contexts must be passively accepted for what they are. Refusing to objectively weigh contrary evidence.
Submitting to the tyranny of political correctness.
The diffusion of personal responsibility
Maintaining institutions should be responsible for fixing problems and divorcing their actions from any downstream perverse effects on others. Living largely self-centred lives low in self-awareness, with little real concern for others.
Blind obedience to authority
Passively assuming the status-quo is all there is and cannot be changed, as reflected in the widespread practice of simply accepting what government/corporate institutions do.
Uncritical conformity to group norms
The now widespread acceptance of non-traditional values and the easy acceptance of any new addition to those values, simply on the basis that values revisionism should be normalised even if there is plenty of evidence it causes harm (the social deficit). Ad hominin attacks under the rubrics of political correctness maintain this fiction.
Passive toleration of evil through inaction or indifference
The widespread uncritical and passive acceptance of the ‘social deficit’ – the obvious harmful effects of social policy and an indifference to the obvious failures of the liberal-corporate model. It is at this level that the summit of wickedness is realised.
Zimbardo’s seven step ‘Lucifer Effect’ and the arguments for their presence
1. Mindlessly taking the first small steps
· The now historic shift, step by step, away from traditional western values and the lessons of history.
· Moving towards greater governmental reach into people’s lives and social interactions.
· The replacement of traditional public service values in government with a self-serving and self-appointed ruling class.
· Failing to protect local economic relationships against the rising scale of large-scale global corporate activity.
· The specialisation of social functions within government agencies and the disengagement of commerce from social good.
· Allowing economic relationships to become increasingly inequitable
2. The dehumanisation of others
· The classification of classes of people as requiring support using tax transfers that lessens their ability to achieve independent self-reliance.
· The separation of humane care, justice, education, health and commerce from local community oversight and control, leading to lost social and human capital.
· Corporations largely ignore social contexts and effects by reducing people to consumer and worker variables in cost-profit equations with little regard to social, economic and environmental damage.
· Making it extremely difficult for the ordinary person to obtain justice or be able to exercise influence and responsibility within a properly democratic process.
3. The dehumanisation of self
· Treating rights as a licence to be socially and personally irresponsible.
· Being careless about culture and its historic context.
· Believing changed political and social contexts must be passively accepted for what they are. Refusing to objectively weigh contrary evidence.
· Submitting to the tyranny of political correctness.
4. The diffusion of personal responsibility
· Maintaining institutions should be responsible for fixing problems and divorcing their actions from any downstream perverse effects on others. Living largely self-centred lives low in self-awareness, with little real concern for others.
5. Blind obedience to authority
· Passively assuming the status-quo is all there is and cannot be changed, as reflected in the widespread practice of simply accepting what government/corporate institutions do.
6. Uncritical conformity to group norms
· The now widespread acceptance of non-traditional values and the easy acceptance of any new addition to those values, simply on the basis that values revisionism should be normalised even if there is plenty of evidence it causes harm (the social deficit). Ad hominin attacks under the rubrics of political correctness maintain this fiction.
7. Passive toleration of evil through inaction or indifference
· The widespread uncritical and passive acceptance of the ‘social deficit’ – the obvious harmful effects of social policy and an indifference to the obvious failures of the liberal-corporate model. It is at this level that the summit of wickedness is realised.