In attacking personal identity through torture, interrogators may have the specific goal of acquiring information from a given individual and may not specifically desire to spread terror in the broader population. But they deceive themselves if they think that they do not thereby spread terror more widely. To attack the dignity and personality of a single individual is to assault a far wider set of individuals and communities than the individual because all those who are relevantly related will suffer in a multitude of ways as well. Since Identity is intersubjective and relationally constituted, this is not something that can be avoided. Humans are social beings. To attack one human thereby entails attacking whole complexes of social relations, all of which are harmed by the use of torture. The experience of fear by all socially connected individuals is inevitable... Whether Torture is performed to coerce confessions, to break resistance of oppositional groups, for the sake of experimentation on human beings, to save their souls, or for whatever reason, it is always a means of power projection. In the case of Liberal-democratic states, this typically has to do with controlling non-citizen populations. Because torture is essentially coercive, and since it essentially attempts to break down and reshape the identity of a victim in order to serve the goals of a torturing institution, it is by its nature oppressive and an act of domination. Whatever justifications may be offered in support of coercion and domination, it is undeniable that governments Torture to project power and to dominate others. ~ pg. 62-66 The Absolute Violation: Why Torture must be Prohibited by Richard Matthews. You Dont like the Truth: 4 Days Inside Guantanamo (full doc) ww3.tvo.org/video/164241/you-dont-truth-4-days-inside-guantanamo
Posted on: Thu, 30 Jan 2014 14:56:57 +0000
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