The story "The Execution of Mayor Yin" offers a dangerous look at the dark side of events that occurred during the Cultural Revolution. Chairman Mao's Red Guards were tasked with carrying out a cultural cleansing that left many people more confused about their role in society rather than strengthening the social class structure. The story tells of a young member of the Red Guard and the personal conflict he suffered during the purification of Hsingan, which buried his uncle and perhaps even a good friend. The torment suffered by the people and the personal struggle that Hsaio Wu struggled with strongly coincide with the age-old question: “Are human beings intrinsically evil?” In a last-ditch attempt to gain political control over China, Chairman Mao Zedong launched the Cultural Revolution. The effort was due to the changes he saw happening in the Soviet Union. To avoid becoming more like the Soviet model, the Cultural Revolution aimed to remove the ways of “Old China” (Harper). Greeted with contempt and seeing that his party was failing in its mission, he launched the Red Guards. The Red Guards were a group of militant high school students recruited with the sole means of spreading the word of Chairman Mao. Students were typically recruited through the use of posters in schools, and after recruitment groups of students traveled to areas of China where they typically were unknown or had no family ties (Lieberthal). The stories of the Red Guards remind me very similar to the Stanford Prison Experiment, in which 24 college students were recruited for a psychological experiment in which half of the group would become prison guards and the other half prisoners. The youth had rules that they had to stick to during a week or two weeks... middle of the paper... there's still Hsaio Wu who put the gag in Mayor Yin's mouth in carrying out his death sentence. If Chairman Mao had been present during the proceedings and execution, how would things have turned out for Mayor Yin? The people who participated in the Stanford Prison Experiment as prisoners and the people who suffered due to the Cultural Revolution have many things in common, both suffered extreme acts of inhumane treatment and humiliation. But both also accepted their fate of deserving the treatment they received. Hsaio Wu and the guards shared in common the overwhelming desire for power and control and ultimately this led them both to perform acts that they could not have done without the guidance of a leader to prevent such acts from happening. Without a true leadership perspective, humans may be more than capable of carrying out the most extreme and inhumane acts imaginable.