[ExI] generational difference on snowdn

[Kelly Anderson]

On Wed, Sep 25, 2013 at 2:54 PM, Eugen Leitl <eugen at leitl.org> wrote:

> On Wed, Sep 25, 2013 at 01:30:56PM -0700, Adrian Tymes wrote:
>
> > (For example, the US soldier in Iraq could have pointed out how the
>
> You don't just wake up as camp guard in Treblinka. This is malice
> aforethought.
>

Actually, you don't plan to be evil. It just happens because other people
have an influence on you. Maybe there is actual evil in someone like Hitler
or Goebels, but the minions don't wake up and plan to be evil.
http://www.ted.com/talks/philip_zimbardo_on_the_psychology_of_evil.html

Moral Mazes gives a glimpse as to how this sort of thing happens in the
corporate world.  Robert Jackall gives us a view to evil which is more
approachable by the folks who think all the evil in the world is in
corporations.
http://www.amazon.com/Moral-Mazes-World-Corporate-Managers/dp/0199729883

But, I see evil as something banal. Something that happens easily. It
happens in government, corporations, armies, religions everywhere that
people gather... but to be really truly evil usually requires a larger
organization. If a billion people believe the way you do, it makes it
easier to strap on the vest and blow up a wedding.


> > commander's orders were eroding trust by Iraqi citizens, and going
> against
> > the spirit and letter of their overall mission orders as given to the
> > commander.  Though, being nonconfrontational at first - sometimes hard to
> > do when faced with new evidence of evil - can help too.)
>
> You know, they evaded draft by going to Canada, during Vietnam.
> Today's mercenaries do not have even that excuse.
>

Most kids who signed up for the Armed Forces in the United States did it
because they honestly believed that America's way of life is threatened by
what's going on in the world. Blame that on the mass media (another large
organization full of evil) if you will.

In my mind, the answer lies in local accountability, which is only able to
be achieved by small groups where more people know each other and are not
so afraid to speak out. A whistle blower that outs a small organization
doesn't face the same kind of danger as one who outs a large organization.
There just isn't the same kind of force impelling one to "get with the
program" when the program is just a few dozen or a hundred people.

-Kelly
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