Abu Ghraib/What Makes Us Moral: Makeup for Missed Seminar

The atrocities that happened at Abu Ghraib prison and the content of What Makes Us Moral both directly tie into the nature versus nurture theme that is prevalent throughout White Fang. They both support the "nurture" philosophy-that one's environment molds one's character accordingly.
At Abu Ghraib prison, the soldiers who were put in charge of interrogating "terrorists" or keeping order became so accustomed to the inhumane torture that, although they originally strongly opposed it, they began to get carried away. They allowed the people who were "in charge" to mold their character into an uncaring, savage beast-all for the purpose of interrogating those people, ninety-percent of who were innocent. The U.S. government, for example, also got swept up in controversy due to its external environment. After 9/11, the government became so angry that it was willing to go against the Geneva Conventions at all costs just to get people to confess something that they usually knew nothing about. Prisoners were humiliated, ridiculed, sexually harassed, and beaten, all due largely in part to the negative impact that other people and society had on the guards' characters. Anger turned into savagery and embarrassment on the United States' part.
What Makes Us Moral also offers great insight into the "nurture" argument. For example, the "shunning" concept basically says that one will succumb to the expectations of some kind of group to avoid abandonment. This clearly illustrates the "molding" concept. In addition, it is discussed how one tends not to sympathize with those whom they know nothing about (e.g. specific races, religions, or cultures) and therefore, one will be less likely to help those kinds of people out or to connect with them because their environment has never supported acceptance or even acknowleged those specific groups.
As in White Fang, both What Makes Us Moral and the story of Abu Ghraib prison tie directly into the nurture theme, in which one is continually molded and remolded to the satisfaction of society and its evil wrath.