The Psychology of Internment – Part 1

Guest Author Uncategorized

In the past nineteen months, I have become deeply afraid. Because I think this nation is heading down the path of fascist totalitarianism so fast it’s almost unbelievably irretrievable.

abbott, that vainglorious little man, is only the front puppet.

Behind him are the forces of BIG energy (aka coal and oil), BIG Pharma (what is the TPP all about?), BIG guns (aka the Military-Industrial Complex, about which President Icingsugar warned us – well, that’s what I thought his name was 55 years ago), BIG whatever else you can think of . . .

Puffy’s piece is a timely reminder of the hell we are perpetrating, not only for others – for which we should be hauled before the International Court of Justice – but also the hell we are fomenting for ourselves.

You can’t do this stuff without enormous psychic damage to everyone.

Thank you, Puffy.

(Image Credit: How Stuff Works)

 

A discussion in two parts

Part One – The reader completes a task (please).

Australia has entered an Age of Internment, the like of which not seen on our soil since World War Two.

Both major political parties have gone down this miserable road, in thrall to a section of the populace fearing outsiders and the perceived threat that they may steal this land in the way we stole it from the Aboriginal peoples in 1776.

There was a road to a humane solution that could have saved lives, built a new regional plan to help asylum seekers while taking Australua off the people-smugglers’ menu. It was, in my opinion worth a try. The Gillard ALP government’s Malaysia plan might have worked. We will never know now, as partisan politics and the chance of picking up some votes in electorates where racial fear was opportunistically stoked by the Liberal and National parties scuttled that idea.

So here we are,going backwards into the internment era, and worse, with reported conditions akin to the worst hell-hole in a mad third-world dictator’s prison. The reports on the treatment of children are shocking.

This is the perfect time to revisit an old social science experiment, one shocking and controversial. This experiment triggered the creation of University Ethics Committees, which these days examine every researchpropsal for potential harm to the participants.

This research would never be allowed today and cannot be repeated. Indeed the experiment was cut short when the lead researcher was pulled up by a colleague who saw he had gone off the rails too.

I am of course discussing the Stanford Prison Experiments at Stanford University, California, in 1971.

Many are aware of it but I urge you, even if you have not the slightest interest in social science, to set aside a little time, grab a glass or cup of whatever and read through the complete description of the planning, carrying-out and fall out of this seemingly innocent almost naive research.

Because nobody predicted the shocking results.

Then think of Nauru and Manus Island. Think of the Department of Immigration, the Minister, and our Prime Minister.

I will not pre-empt the story just now, but will follow up with another post when people have had the time to read, listen and absorb. Please don’t just read the first page of the website and think, yeah, that one. Take the slide tour. It has the detail which contains the devil.

http://www.prisonexp.org/

Thank you.

610 thoughts on “The Psychology of Internment – Part 1”

  1. Rockfall at Kilauea triggers a brief explosive event, but no spill yet:

    [video src="http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/multimedia/uploads/multimediaFile-1168.mp4" /]

  2. [video src="http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/multimedia/uploads/multimediaFile-1168.mp4" /]

  9. I thought SBY did that a few days ago ? Turning up at a varsity a couple of days after the executions he would have known would happen might not result in a good “reception” .

  10. Our country has been ruined..the rot really set in with Howard, there was a pause and a resurgence of confidence with Gillard , but now we have really hit rock-bottom with this idiot. I feels like all the “oomph” has gone out of the place!…yet there’s no other place in the world that seems attractive enough to go visit..I suppose one could give Tierra del Feugo a shot..but not this time of year..perhaps in the Spring.

    Gawd!..It’s a job and a half even to post something…it feels that draining to even think. I’m sure they got a machine somewhere sucking the initiative out of all of us!….effing LNP.

  11. d’yer reckon we could get a “crowd-souce” funding project going to fund a facelift for Wazza Truss?..his plug-ugly moosh is getting harder to look at every day.

  12. Jaycee
    i am so drained today i feel this world is so awful that i wonder why i bother trying to make it better. It seems that our political systems on this earth favour murderous sociopaths.

  13. It is bad enough that eight were murdered by state sanction.

    It appalls me more that Those In Power here could hand them over in full knowledge of the likely consequences.

  14. Add to that the crocodile tears of the Current Incumbents to extract any possible advantage in The Polls.

  16. My guess is that the Dirty Toilet has “forgotten” how evil drug traffickers are.

  20. Your Government and the MSM just can’t understand what Indonesia has against us.

    For starters:

    . invading Indonesian territory

    . Sending asylum seekers back

    . Not letting the local press in to a press conference held by the NE in Jakarta

    . Lying about what the Indonesian PM and FM said to them

    . Threatening repercussions for executions.

  21. This might make me very unpopular, but…..

    I am 200% against the death penalty, no matter where it is still used. BUT – if you break the law in a country that still has mediaeval forms of punishment then you have to be prepared to accept the consequences. Never forget Chan and Sukumaran were drug traffickers, they were well aware of all the hype about Schapelle Corby and the way Indonesia deals with drug carriers, and yet they went ahead anyway. Dumb? Cocky? It won’t happen to me? Who knows. They were idiots. No matter how much they may have reformed, found God, sworn to do good, married a fiance hours before death, they still committed a crime that is punishable by death in Indonesia. It doesn’t matter that the AFP colluded to have them arrested in Indonesia rather than Australia, they were still breaking the law, and they knew that. If they had not carried those drugs they would not have been arrested and, if they had not later on died of drug overdoses or been killed by drug lords they would still be alive today.

    Actions have consequences.

    I don’t feel sorry for these two men, I don’t feel angry with Indonesia for enforcing their laws, even though I disagree with them. I do, however, feel immense sorrow for their families, who must be in the worst possible pain and anguish today. They are the victims, the ones who really have to suffer the consequences of foolish actions, even though they are innocent.

  22. leone,

    Agreed.

    Interestingly, they were exporting drugs from Indonesia.

  23. I am 200% against the death penalty, no matter where it is still used. BUT – if you break the law in a country that still has mediaeval forms of punishment then you have to be prepared to accept the consequences.

    Hold it right there, Leone.

    You might have a point if it had been a few weeks or months since their conviction.

    10 years on, it’s a different matter. After 10 years you’re morally entitled to think they’ve de facto commuted your sentence.

    No-one in their right mind – not you, not I – would try to smuggle drugs through a SE Asian port, in or out of it. We just wouldn’t want the hassle. That’s a given. But stupidity is as stupidity does. Death is permanent. The punishment for “foolishness” (as you put it) should not be death. And when you consider the one who get away – the big wigs and the controllers – without even a whisper of them going to court or (shudder) being convicted, the Bali-2 case is a no-brainer.

    However, young kids think they’re immune. No-one was hurt, and the drugs weren’t destined for use in Indonesia. It was, in fact, a technical offence, not one with real consequences in the country that imposed, and carried out, the death penalty.

    Just on the facts this should have been in a lower range of offences than Capital Offences: serious, but not life-threatening to the perpetrators (as it was not for 7 out of the 9).

  25. Leone,

    And the same for EVERY other country with medieval and worse laws.

    I also agree with Ducky’s point.

    On another matter, it’s all well and good to fantasise about former AFP Chief Commissioner Keelty waking up every morning and feeling guilty – but he doesn’t, and he won’t.

    He’s an authoritarian – as are so many in the police, and the military – and has no (and will never have any) doubt about the rightness (in every sense) of his (in)actions.

  26. tlbd

    That’s an angle that has been missed by the msm, but then they are only interested in the ghoulish aspect of it all. No tv news in this house for a week or two, it’s just sickening.

  27. Bushfire Bill,

    I have little doubt that the death sentences were enforced for a variety of reasons, all associated with causing the current Australian regime to lose face.

    Of course I don’t condone that – how could any humane person? – but it is a highly complex matter, involving so many different cultural sensitivities. And cultural insensitivities, on abbott’s and bishop’s and morriscum’s etc. parts.

    In the end, it’s the commodification of a few silly young people’s lives for making a strong political point.

    President Widodo will have no problem living with that.

    Neither will abbott – for somewhat different and in my opinion even more reprehensible reasons.

  30. BB
    You might think the crime deserved a lesser punishment, but the law in Indonesia is the law. Being young and stupid is no excuse.

    And this brings us to the crux of the matter – Chan and Sukumaraan, if they were victims at all, were victims of the incredibly ridiculous ‘war on drugs’. When all countries stop making addictive drugs illegal and in doing that put drug traffickers out of business the world will be a better place. Legalise it all, make it available at the chemist, tax it, use the money raised to help addicts kick their habit. Stop wasting billions on having the world’s police forces running around burning marijuana crops and arresting sellers. Spend the money on rehab.

  31. I should also add that I am almost completely opposed to the death penalty.

    The only situations where it should be applied are for those individuals who deal in industrial-grade death for personal/corporate/political profit.

  32. “Legalise it all”

    Absolutely. The Yanks have a lot to answer for on that one.

  33. of a few silly young people’s lives

    These two recruited 7 people for a free trip to Bali. All the 7 had to do was be stacked up with heroin on their way out and then receive a share back in Australia.

    The 2 planned that they themselves would leave Indonesia with nothing more than spare undies and a toothbrush – a safe and easy peasey back to Sydney trip.

  34. Leone & Ducky,

    Indeed.

    Criminalising any aspect of human behaviour only gives real crims the chance to get richer, and so-called law enforcement agencies and politicians the chance to be corrupted.

    One exception only: no human exploitation of any kind i.e., no slavery, no child abuse, no child pornography.

    And lots of programs to protect and rehabilitate.

  35. Does Discounted-For-Sale actually know when she is asking stupid questions?

  36. Just think of the jails that would be closed world-wide! To everyone’s benefit.

  37. Being young and stupid is no excuse.

    It’s the ONLY excuse they had.

    This was essentially a victimless crime, at least as far as the death penalty was concerned.

    You have to make a decision as to whether you oppose the death penalty, or condone it. Leone said she opposes it, yet condones it in the case of stupidity.

    Death is too permanent for nuances like that.

  38. 7.5 is not designed for people who know the Internet.

    It is behind and it cannot give, or validate, the various expert and non-expert opinions.

    No wonder we are given Fraudband.

  39. Is BoM being overly cautious after criticism from the NSW ECL?

    INITIAL FLOOD WATCH FOR PARTS OF THE CAPRICORNIA, CENTRAL HIGHLANDS & COALFIELDS, WIDE BAY & BURNETT, SOUTHEAST COAST, DARLING DOWNS & GRANITE BELT AND MARANOA & WARREGO FORECAST DISTRICTS

    http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/wrap_fwo.pl?IDQ20890.html

    FLOOD WATCH FOR THE NEW SOUTH WALES COASTAL VALLEYS FROM THE QUEENSLAND BORDER TO TAREE FOR THIS FRIDAY AND SATURDAY

    http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/wrap_fwo.pl?IDN36501.html

  41. I opposed the death penalty for the bali bomber, even though his death did not distress me. I sent a letter/email on the day of his death to the Indonesian embassy requesting his reprieve. I am consistent on this matter.

    No one should be killed for being young stupid and greedy, or old stupid and greedy for that matter. Just because it is someone’s law is irrelevant to me. A bunch of people get together and write some words down and invest them with some meaning that gives them the right to execute prisoners who have no way of fighting back against the person is who going to kill them. And I am asked to respect that? Not this little green frog, no way, Even a rooster in a cock fight has a chance of living.

  42. With the combination of natural and man-made tragedies this week ; Earthquake in Nepal, executions in Indonesia and I suspect , ISIS executions of other religious folk in Iraq, one has to wonder just when people will wake up to the reality that Buddhist prayer flags or wheels, songs to Jesus or a strong faith in Allah doesn’t save anyone at all?

    Someone at some time will suddenly blink, open their eyes wide and exclaim ; “Hey!…wait a minute…”

  43. BB

    Stop twisting my words.I do not condone the death policy, but I do believe that a country has the right to enforce its own laws, even though I might disagree with them. I can’t vote in Indonesia, I have no say in what their government decides their laws will be.

  44. So how do we bring about change in the policies and laws of countries that are not ours? How do we influence a foreign government to give up the death penalty? Obviously BushfireBill must know how we go about this, seeing as he is so rock-hard certain that I cannot abhor the death penalty while saying another country has the right to enforce its own laws, even if they are repugnant to me.

  45. Ducky,

    To everyone’s benefit.

    Except the benefit of those corpses making squillions out of private prisons in America, the UK, and here.

  46. The Weekly (ABC TV) had someone on called Caitlin Stacey. I really really wanted to put a tow-rope through her nose ring.

  47. CTar,

    – a safe and easy peasey back to Sydney trip.

    I don’t condone in any way at all whatsoever the callous disregard Chan and Sukumaran had for their seven “mules”. They thought, as so many young men in particular think, that they were bullet-proof.

    However, even silly stupid, thoughtless and callous young men can grow up and change.

    My point about the commodification of (young) lives for political purposes stands.

  48. The death penalty by whatever hideous means (looking at you, USA), as I understand it, is pour encourager les autres.

    I have yet to see any evidence that it does so “encourager”.

  50. Speaking of death, can anyone drum up the MASH episode with suicide is painless?

    It is one episode that sticks in my mind. Like most of the episodes it is a priceless send-up.

    That series is the closest the Americans have ever got to the understated type of humour. It leaves in its wake the “do the funny, pause so they can get it and then do it again.”

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