I don’t normally get into psychology, but this is pretty interesting. Here are highlights of the documentary to think about.

1. The other guards could have stopped the bad guards, but didn’t. This corresponds to modern day police. When one cop starts abusing someone, the others join in, or at the very least don’t do anything to stop the abuse.
2. The other prisoners let the prisoners who stand up against the abusers stand alone. A good example of this is when someone doesn’t pay the IRS, and stands trial before a jury of their peers (who you would think would also like to not pay their taxes). They are found guilty an overwhelming majority of the time. Rather than root for the guy who is willing to be one of the first people to put their neck out for liberty and justice, people send him to prison.
3. Authority corrupts people. As they said in the documentary, the prison guards were normal people, who when given authority went nuts.

It’s crazy to think that these guinea pigs completely bought into their roles in what they knew was an experiment. The sad truth is that our system is no more valid than the nuts in the Stanford basement. There is no moral foundation for our system of government other than might makes right.

You give a guy a costume, a badge and a gun, tell him he’s a cop and he’s willing to go out and destroy fellow human beings for selling untaxed cigarettes (e.g. Eric Garner). The badge is a piece of tin, with no authority or validity other than his willingness to commit violence.