inkbluesky

Talking Points Memo highlighted this article by Frank Rich from the NYT. ‘Our humanity has been compromised’

    Our moral trajectory over the Bush years could not be better dramatized than it was by a reunion of an elite group of two dozen World War II veterans in Washington this month. They were participants in a top-secret operation to interrogate some 4,000 Nazi prisoners of war. Until now, they have kept silent, but America’s recent record prompted them to talk to The Washington Post.

“We got more information out of a German general with a game of chess or Ping-Pong than they do today, with their torture,” said Henry Kolm, 90, an M.I.T. physicist whose interrogation of Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s deputy, took place over a chessboard. George Frenkel, 87, recalled that he “never laid hands on anyone” in his many interrogations, adding, “I’m proud to say I never compromised my humanity.”

Our humanity has been compromised by those who use Gestapo tactics in our war. The longer we stand idly by while they do so, the more we resemble those “good Germans” who professed ignorance of their own Gestapo. It’s up to us to wake up our somnambulant Congress to challenge administration policy every day. Let the war’s last supporters filibuster all night if they want to. There is nothing left to lose except whatever remains of our country’s good name.

This story reminded me of the infamous Stanford Prison Experiment,

The Stanford prison experiment was ostensibly a psychological study of human responses to captivity and its behavioral effects on both authorities and inmates in prison. It was conducted in 1971 by a team of researchers led by Philip Zimbardo of Stanford University. Undergraduate volunteers played the roles of both guards and prisoners living in a mock prison in the basement of the Stanford psychology building.

Prisoners and guards rapidly adapted to their roles, stepping beyond the boundaries of what had been predicted and leading to dangerous and psychologically damaging situations. One-third of the guards were judged to have exhibited “genuine” sadistic tendencies, while many prisoners were emotionally traumatized and two had to be removed from the experiment early.

At least some people easily slip into sadistic behavior on their own. If lead to believe by their leaders that they are doing so for god and country just makes it all that much easier to rationalize.

 into the blu zone

When it’s time to move on - Telltale signs that you might be stuck in a dead-end job 

* Your conversations with your boss and/or performance evaluations are more about shortcomings and areas that need improvement, rather than about your contributions, areas of career strength, and potential career progression.
* You have resigned yourself to running in place, keeping out of trouble, but not advancing in your career.
*Your colleagues know more about what’s going on in your area than you do.

*Some of your responsibilities have been taken away and given to others.

Or when you have the same waking thought every morning. You want to take your boss and a few coworkers and shot them out of a circus cannon. We’re all supposed to be doing something we love doing, but sometimes what we think will be great isn’t what we thought it was going to be. It is a royal pain to job hunt, but better to do that then let a job drag you down emotionally and everyday you stay stuck is another day that you could have found the job that really suits you.