Pictures from Abu Ghraib continue to shock the world. Otherwise decent sons-of-the-soil (not to mention daughters, the pride of their communities) Americans grinning happily at the sight of Iraqi prisoners cowering in fear and shame…. Reports that American soldiers are taught methods of breaking down the enemy’s psyche notwithstanding, it seems unlikely that the occupying American forces have developed a collective tendency towards cruelty and sadism…. Yet, their feeling of being in power, having control over the defeated prisoners is so apparent from these pictures…..
What is it about power that intoxicates so much? Especially power that is of a transient nature…. To understand what I mean, you only need to walk into any Government agency in India to say, procure a document or get some trivial work done….
This is the power that a traffic constable wields over a young man on a motorbike, stopped arbitrarily for a license check. That a watchman at the American consulate has over the waiting crowds. Not to mention the actual immigration officer who holds your future in his hands. The power that Moe wields over Calvin and Calvin, in turn over his building blocks and snowmen (not the mutant snow-goon variety, of course).
And the lesser the significance of the person in the overall scheme of things, the worse the impact of the power… Sometimes I feel that the most ‘powerful’ person in any Government office is the peon…. Should I or should I not let you in?
What does pop psychology have to say about this?