When in a certain environment where an individual feels abused by higher authority, they will seek an escape to avoid the oppression of the higher authority. In the article “The Power of Context” by Malcolm Gladwell the higher authority of the police commission in New York City didnt impose strict rules on the citizens. It wasn't until Bratton came into power that petty crimes were being imposed against citizens. His reasoning behind this was based on his Broken Window Theory. This suggests that individuals who are in environments that are untreated and broken, are given “invitations to more serious crimes” (152), and as a way to stop it and clean up New York, small crimes would be charged against people. Gladwell believed that changing the…show more content… To show how the power of context can change individuals by fixing little things, Bratton instructed to “crack down on quality-of-life crimes” on the squeegee men” (154). These quality of life crimes are crimes such as an individual just asking for money, without harming anyone. The “squeegee men” are anyone of lesser status, who commit panhandle crimes. How would citizens who aren't harming anyone feel if a higher power (Bratton) is throwing them in jail for asking for some change? Opposition towards Bratton would occur because before the panhandlers would have gotten a citation but now Bratton wants to charge them as criminals. Looking at Nafisi’s article, when one of the women came to class she told a story of a girl who was caught with blush in her bag. The guards “[found] a blush in her bag, had tried to send her home with a reprimand” (283). The Iranian government, like Bratton tried to control the little things, such as a small piece of makeup, in hopes that the women will change. However, this is not the case. The “squeegee men” are like the women in Tehran, with the higher authority giving them reprimands from something that isn't harmful to anyone else. Moreover, the women who was being cited for carrying blush opposed this and seeked freedom. That is shown when she joined Nafisi’s book club. Because the environment tried to reprimand her for little things, she took it upon…show more content… Nafisi decided to leave the university because they “limited [her] in all manner of ways, monitoring [her] visitors, controlling [her] actions” (284). According to Gladwell, a higher authority, like the university and school should have forced Nafisi to comply and not leave the university, but she didnt. Instead Nafisi opposed the ideals and what the higher power wanted from her. Likewise, in Gladwell's article he talks about an experiment conducted by Zimbardo with prisoners and guards. The goal of the experiment was to see if the individuals would adapt to the environment and start behaving like brutal guards and victimized prisoners, and as a result the guards developed the attitude of what a prison guard is. This type of environment was very harsh on the prisoners and according to Gladwell, the prisoners would have complied to all of the guards rules, but that wasn't the case. He states “On the morning of the second day, the prisoners rebelled” (158). This shows the type of tension and opposition the environment of the jailed formed for the prisoners. They opposed the treatment of the guards and weren't going to stand for it anymore. Gladwell would assume that the prisoners and Nafisi would obey the rules of their higher authorities, but in both cases they individuals didnt.
