Quote:
Originally Posted by Cowperson
I wonder why he decided on two dozen nails?
Did he go to Wal-Mart at say, "give me two dozen nails . . . . I gotta nail my maid?"
There's a primitive savage in all of us that's probably capable of just about anything, according to Lord Of The Flies.
But we need extreme circumstances to set us off, which isn't likely to happen to most people in most modern societies.
Cultural? Maybe. From what I've read, however, this is extreme even for a place well documented for abuse of servants.
Our prisons are full of guys who'd probably do the same thing though.
Cowperson
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Lord Of The Flies is fictional, which takes away a good deal of that argument. It doesn't fully discredit the notion though, because the Milgram experiments were real and somewhat along similar lines. If they have told us anything, it's that people can and will do horrible things to other people provided a) they are assured their will be no consequences, and b) they don't have the intestinal fortitude to disobey orders.
Unfortunately, it's not fair to compare the Milgram experiments to this scenario because the majority of Milgram test subjects went against their inner nature in causing harm to another human being. This Saudi couple had -- supposedly -- no problems whatsoever in commiting this atrocious act. They must view human life differently than I do. Maybe they considered their maid to be sub-human due to her socioeconomic status and thus downplayed this atrocity as a commonplace occurence.
I have no problem giving my cats scolding swats on the behind if they're misbehaving, but I coddle them and apologize profusely if I accidentally step on their tails.