- Ultermarto
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- Fabled Member
Not that this is anything we'd call tyranny, but it points to what I'm talking about. President Mursi, who was designated so after the revolution in Egypt last year, has apparently given himself power grants, which the public has rejected.
Think about this; there are roughly 150 sovereign states in the world, right? That means, again roughly, 150 leaders of these states. How many of those are tyrants? How many 'abuse their power'? Quite a lot. If it's dispositional, then we could say that in every 150 people, perhaps a quarter of them have some sort of 'tyrant gene'. But that would be ridiculous. Philip Zimbardo goes so far to suggest that not only genetic, but manifested dispositions, are not the cause of 'evil' such as tyranny. He points towards a situational influence, demonstrating how many of us, no matter how seemingly sane or good natured, will act evil under situations where we might think otherwise.
But what is this situational reaction, and where did it come from? My friend suggests that we simply go mad with power, but no matter how much I ask, he never really explains what he means by that.