Dehumanization of the Enemy: Explaining Abu Ghraib, Stanford Prison and Nazi Camps Persuasive Essay by scribbler

In the first section of this paper, the physical, psychological and sexual abuses that took place at Abu Ghraib prison is addressed as well as the Bush Administration's reaction to these behaviors. In the next section of the paper, the author discusses Phillip Zimbardo's Stanford prison study and describes the level of baseness and utter disregard for humanity that the guards exhibited. Finally, in the third section, the paper addresses the inhumane treatments expressed in Zimbardo's experiments, Abu Ghraib and in Nazi concentration camps, and explains how during wartime, it is typical for the political powers to attempt a dehumanization of the enemy and when the "enemy" loses its human characteristics, the morality that would usually make someone reasonable towards their fellow humans disappears too. The paper asserts that recently, dehumanization took place in a world after 9/11 that made it perfectly acceptable to almost every American to slander and even harm anyone of Middle Eastern descent.