The Bad Apple or the Bad Barrel? So easy to Blame?
It’s time for us to understand and break free from what my granny used to call the ‘bad barrel’ theory. Quite the advanced theory for a little '4 foot 11 inch' uneducated woman. This theory is the distinction that has challenged social psychologists for decades. The question becomes is it the individual or the system that is to blame for the chaos in our world today? As we are seeing in our present reality, it's so easy to place blame on the individuals, yet are the individuals really to blame or are they just a victim of the bad barrel makers?
My granny claimed that outside influences have strong power over individual behaviors and I never really understood what she spoke of until later when I studied the famous Milgram experiment and the Philip Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment which were two notable experiments that revealed clearly how people will cause harm to others when the social context allows for such behavior. Seriously, stop and give that one at least a moments thought. Milgram’s experiments studied the power of authority in enabling people to cause pain to others. One of his conclusions was that “relatively few people have the resources needed to resist authority."
Zimbardo drew similar conclusions after conducting fascinating experiments where he simulated a prison with student volunteers from Stanford University playing the roles of prisoners and prison guards. He was forced to end his planned two week experiment in six days because the potential for harm was too high. Drawing lessons from this work to apply to real life circumstances (such as the prisoner abuse in Abu Ghraib), Zimbardo contended that it’s not just the bad apples that should be held responsible yet also the barrel makers who establish and run the system. His analysis of misbehavior includes the bad apple (the individual), the bad barrel (the situation) and the barrel makers (the system). Quite powerful research if you are truly paying attention to the bad barrel that is being constructed in our world today.
During my recent journey on South African soil, I was really pushed fast and hard into the deep shadow that prevails there and I was forced to learn more about the bad barrel theory. In my journey to the depths, I came to realize something that I find shocking to even myself, which is that Evil is NOT REAL. Every time I ventured out of the house, I heard Mr. Mandela’s voice in my head saying that ‘Poverty is man-made’ and I came to realize that the concept of Evil is only the diabolical exercise of Power that is used to harm people intentionally, psychologically, physically and mortally. It is used as a weapon in many forms to commit crimes against Humanity and to attempt to control and manipulate the collective.
Of course the first question that one might ask is What/Who is responsible? It could be the who of people or the situational forces. It could be the master manipulators of the world. Those with the power and the knowledge that many of us know exist even if we are told that it doesn’t. We are trapped in the battle of good and evil because of a sick mind game designed to separate and keep us enslaved that is built on an elite pyramid of power. Those that do not have a need to know, do NOT know. It is the very essence of elitism.
How do good people become evil? In South Africa I could clearly see that mostly evil is blamed on the individuals or as they are often called The Bad Apples. I don’t know why I find this surprising as this belief is truly the foundation of all social psychology and all religions. I see it in the Extremes in South Africa and around the world between the haves and the have not’s. I saw it in personally in the fact that while I was in South Africa, the municipal services were no longer picking up the trash from the townships. Poverty is man-made!
Any time an individual is blamed for anything, it is important to remember as Mr. Mandela used to say there is ALWAYS a bigger picture to be told. Questions to be asked such as What is the situation? Who are the cast of characters? What are the external factors that created the bad apple; many who grew up in communities of beautiful people just attempting to Survive in the worst of circumstances. In the Bad Barrel Theory, the communities then would be called The Bad Barrel.
The true power or as Mr. Mandela called it ‘The Invisible power’ is in the system. All else is only a designer reality designed to control and manipulate. In order to truly see the Evil we must look at the much broader influences, political, economic, legal and cultural background. We must each individually take part in the fact that we are allowing this to occur in our world, we must forgive ourselves and start a new and we must each make new choices from that awareness. It’s imperative that we know who The Bad Barrel-Makers are in order to face them head on with clarity and resolution of purpose. The Barrel-Makers creates the situation which corrupts the individuals. So if you want to change a person, you must first change the situation. If you want to change a situation you must know where the power is in the system.
What keeps Evil in place? In my journey to South Africa (the micro of the macro) I found several blatant examples including the dehumanization of others, de-individuation of Self (anonymity). (Both of which are widely used in military training as a precursor to creating civil war.) I am also seeing a huge diffusion of personal responsibility and blind obedience to authority. The most blatant observation is the uncritical conformity to group norms and passive tolerance of evil through inaction, or indifference. I am also seeing not just in South Africa, yet all around the world that Evil is easiest to manipulate when it occurs in new or unfamiliar situations when people are thrown off balance by events such as vicious hate filled presidential elections, floods, war, terror, mass murders, etc.
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Understanding Evil is not excusing it, it is reclaiming the power that it has over you by shining a spotlight on it and then learning to hold both the evil and the good simultaneously in your consciousness. Riding the razor’s edge if you will where you are completely balanced and centered.
As I have slowly progressed in truth and wisdom the path seems to be quickening into more challenging & complex journeys, and the polarity shifts in kind. The forks in the road become less polarized in the obvious demeanor. The clarity between black and white becomes a bit more shaded in gray as I seem to be riding the razor’s edge between evil and good. Most days it requires greater thought to keep my balance and differentiate the true path.
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It was only recently at a silent retreat that I had a monumental shift in consciousness by letting my remaining attachment to the evil go. I was still carrying a belief that I was evil from my childhood and having a friend and mentor to gently and lovingly assisted me to return and remember that place within me that had never been touched or tainted or corrupted has been life altering. That place that was true love, pure light and clean, clear frequency. That place that was there all the time. I just needed the reminder to come home to the infinite love and authentic compassion within that is in my DNA, that is in your DNA and to realize that just because I grew up in a rotten barrel, it did not make me rotten!