by Thom McKee Jr.

Is extreme violence or the threat of extreme violence actually a good way to control people? This isn’t exactly a new question – and if you look at recent history, it certainly isn’t a resolved question. Since the beginning of civilization, this has actually been a key leadership question. Does brutality work as an effective way to control the masses?

In the 1970’s, there was some interesting research done after a very public hostage crisis in Sweden where some bank robbers held hostages for six days. The fascinating part of this particular scenario was the fact that