TED 2008 wrapped up just a couple of days ago. The Internet can be such an echo chamber that I try not to re-post links from BoingBoing, but this one was too good to pass up.

Dr. Philip Zimbardo, administrator of the famous Stanford Prison Experiment, spoke at TED about how evil is in many cases brought about by bad institutional settings. Abu Ghraib is his chief example on this point.

This quote, caught by BoingBoing's Mark Frauenfelder, who was attending the event and live blogging it, leapt out at me:

"What can be done about this? Zimbardo offers heroism as the "antidote
to evil." Teach kids to be ready to act heroically when the see evil.
We need to give them real role models. Comic book superheroes are bad
models, because they have super powers. A hero is the soldier who
reported the Abu Ghraib abuses. People wanted to kill him. They
threatened to kill his wife and mother, too. He had to go in hiding.
Teach kids hero courses, teach them hero skills, make them
heroes-in-waiting. "

I was struck by this paragraph. I've been thinking about it daily since I read it five days ago. I'm a father. I hope that my actions translate into powerful lessons to my kids. I hope that they'll be heroes-in-waiting.

Watch this psychology class video on the Stanford Prison Experiment, if you've never seen it before.