Any Weakness in a Man's Ethics Can Drive His Downfall

"The linkage of men's ethics, reputations, and fates can be studied in even more vivid detail in prison camp. In that brutally controlled environment a perceptive enemy can get his hooks into the slightest chink in a man's ethical armor and accelerate his downfall. Given the right opening, the right moral weakness, a certain susceptibility on the part of the prisoner, a clever extortionist can drive his victim into a downhill slide that will ruin his image, self-respect and life in a very short time...I am thinking of the tragedy that can befall a person who has such a need for love or attention that he will sell his soul for it." (p. 29)