The Study

On the morning of Day 6 pDM is withdrawn from the study. The other Prisoners are told he has gone for health reasons. The real reason is that we want to see what will happen to his democratic vision if he is not there to promote it.

We quickly find out. Ideas need to be practical to be popular, and with no-one to organize it, the idea of a forum quickly fades away. We are back to a conflict between increasingly ascendant Prisoners and increasingly despondent Guards.

As if to exemplify the situation, one group of Prisoners have written their own Prison rules, a mockery of the Guards’ version. Now they begin to act as if they can tell the Guards what to do. A Guard approaches the cell. They taunt him and suggest they should inspect the Guards in the morning. Eventually he moves away. They shout out that they will not tolerate Guards walking out on them. He returns. They taunt him some more. He leaves. Later this causes them to reflect :

pJE: Who’s in control here? Who’s in charge of this place?
pPP: We are.

They laugh. It is time to up the ante. It is time for what they call “Operation Mayhem”.