Whilst this is a reasonable conclusion to draw at one level, it may be too simplistic at another. In characterizing them, Kate Winslet’s character and the two real life convicted Nazis, as “monsters” (which they most likely were) does this protect the rest of us from facing a more deeply troublesome question, Could I too be such a monster? and What Does it Mean for Now?
This former is in effect  the question addressed by Philip Zimbardo (2007) in his book “The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil”. Zimbardo became famous for the Stanford Prison Experiment where psychologically healthy, randomly assigned college students transformed into brutal guards and traumatized prisoners in a matter of days, when placed in a simulated prison. Zimbardo states “I realized that it was I, along with my research team, who was responsible for the system that made the situation work so effectively and so destructively. We failed to provide adequate top-down constraints to prevent prisoner abuse and we set an agenda and procedures that encouraged a process of de humanization and de-individuation that stimulated guards to act in creatively evil ways.”

In taking Zimbardo seriously we are confronted with the potential in all of us to behave in terrible ways if placed in a context without appropriate constraints on the one hand and clear and brutal role expectations on the other. Zimbardo sketches the deep psychological and social tension between personal responsibility and systemic constraint. Does one negate the other? The lesson of Abu Ghraib is clearly that the system itself can create its own ‘monster’. So often the system washes it own hands and absolves itself of all responsibility by placing the full burden of responsibility for such monstrous acts on the individual. Of course systemic responsibility does not absolve the individual either. 

What does this mean for us and now? We are no doubt entering a time of economic hardship when operating from a position that is fair and just for all will become increasingly expensive for many. A time when agreeing to sacrifice constraints which keep us ‘good’ and civilized may be tempting if they offer security and comfort for ourselves and those nearest to us. While we have the freedom we do in a democracy like ours, we should be alert to agreeing to decisions which limit the choices of others, which dehumanize those in our midst and which elect others to positions of power who support these ideas. We should act while we can.