Psychohistory (KLG)

      It is not surprising that King Leopold was an insane megalomaniac. In order to oversee the atrocities that he did and not bat an eye, it takes a truly twisted and damaged person. The thing that is really terrifying is the ordinary people who went to Africa and commit these terrible acts. It really is similar in its own way to the Stanford Prison Experiment. Reading about ordinary people made me think, would I have been able to be different and protest the atrocities in Africa had I been sent there. The answer to that question lies in education. The purpose, I believe, of an education is to teach people to think for themselves. If I have learned enough in school about my personal humanitarian beliefs and have learned to defend those beliefs than I have received a proper education and I will not engage in actions that conflict with my morals.
Another interesting topic that came to mind when faced with this question is how much of what our government does today would we be not okay with when it was out in the open? We generally like to believe the best in our government because the actions happening are so far away from us actually making the decisions or seeing the people affected by the decisions. I believe something similar happened with the Belgian people. When faced with a horrifying truth that was so far away, it was easier to believe in the stuff right in front of them in Belgium.