Exploring The Dark Side of Human Nature
For the past few months, I've been drawn to books that speak about human psychology. One of them is a book called Women Who Run With The Wolves, written by Clarissa Pincola Estes and the other one is The Lucifer Effect, written by Philip Zimbardo.
I haven't finished reading either of these books as they are very complex with about 1500 pages each. These are the types of books that require you to reflect upon the subject of the chapter. It requires thinking and deep thought.
What I can summarise after having read a few hundred pages is this: we humans are creatures with behaviours that are so erratic, it can go from one extreme to the other in a split second. We are not as selfless as we would like to believe, rather we are self-preserving. Whatever we do, we do it because it benefits us in some ways.
It's interesting how the kindest person can react selfishly or become evil when they are put in an environment that allows them to become that. For those who have never lived in the time of war, this notion will not seem possible until and if they come into such a situation.
This can be clearly seen in the chapter Exploring The Dark Side of Nature in The Lucifer Effect. This chapter describes the Stanford Prison Experiments conducted by the writer of the book to imitate the conditions of the prisoners and guards in the Abu Ghraib prison. In the experiment, the participants started as normal people with morals and as they went along with the experiment, some of them showed signs of relinquishing their moral compass.
My take on this - when people are placed in a place without any types of laws to govern them, people become thus. This particular situation can also be seen in many movies about the apocalypse where people become evil due to the absence of laws and enforcement. Being evil is not something that we learn, it's already inside each one of us but it's our choice what to do with it.
I find it interesting that these two books that I'm reading are of two different subjects but in essence, it speaks of the same thing - the nature of humans and how influence, be it in the form of people, place or situation, plays a major role in shaping the personality and moral values of a person or a community.
Estes suggested in Women Who Run With The Wolves that when we are trapped in a situation, self-preservation kicks in and this is the thing that pushes us to do the things that we normally won't. This is also a blessing for many women because it, in a way, supplies us with the bravery that we need to get ourselves out from an abusive environment.
So far, this is what I've learned from these two books. I shall write a lengthier and more detailed summary of it when I'm done. Happy weekend!
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