preview

Evil Eichmann Good Vs Evil

Better Essays

1

2

Understanding How Good People Turn Evil
Name
Institution
Date

Introduction
Some fifty years ago, the perpetrator of Holocaust, Adolph Eichmann was put on trial. The prosecutor referred to him as a new killer, but reporting about the same trial, Hannah Arendt made a different conclusion. She made a point that Eichmann was a bureaucrat, referring to him as a law binding citizen who performed his duties and subscribed to relevant orders. The main assertion was that when a good person in placed in a bad situation, then it is definite that bad things will happen Haidt 2012). Since then, numerous evidences have always emerged to support this claim. A psychologist at Yale, Stanley Migram revealed that men would always inflict …show more content…

As a result, individuals are conditioned to perform evil acts or harm the perceived enemies without mercy. A typical example is the genocide in Burundi where the dominant Tutsi killed the Hutus, raped their women and mercilessly slaughtered their children since they were conditioned to believe that the Hutus were enemies and thus were meant to be eliminated from the society (Fischhoff & Chauvin 2011). The perpetrators moved across the country and killed Hutus from colleges, primary and secondary schools, churches, the army and other sectors that gave the picture or impression of status (Russell 2015). Another example is how military men are usually conditioned to kill the “enemy”, with the enemy representing groups such as terrorist, without mercy and the act is usually applauded by citizens since they are also conditioned to support the justified evil …show more content…

While some, like in the case of Lucifer and Adam turn evil as a result of disobedience and pride, a majority of good people always get themselves doing evil as a result of innovation and creativity. As illustrated in the paper, different perspectives have always been applied to explain how good people turn evil.
Work cited
Fischhoff, B., & Chauvin, C. 2011. Intelligence analysis : behavioral and social scientific foundations. Washington, DC: National Academies Press.
Gino, F., & Ariely, D. 2015. Dishonesty explained: What leads moral people to act immorally.
Haidt, J. 2012. The righteous mind: Why good people are divided by politics and religion. Vintage.
Haslam, N., & Loughnan, S. 2014. Dehumanization and infrahumanization. Annual review of psychology, 399-423.
Russell, A. 2015. Obedience and selective genocide in Burundi. Africa, 437-456.
Zimbardo, P. G. 2011. The Lucifer effect : how good people turn evil. London: Ebury

Get Access