The Washington government not only admits torturing
prisoners, it praises itself for it.
After the Second World War we Oldies thought we had won some
victories for human reason. We thought public opinion was veering away from
torturing helpless prisoners. At that time you could easily mention between
sixty and eighty countries in which torture was a normal means of trying to get
information. But we thought most governments were becoming ashamed to admit it.
That, we thought, was some little progress. Now we see we were optimistically
wrong.
There was plenty of propaganda in favour of torture in our
day, mostly from America. Torture by physical abuse and torture by water were legal for so long in the United States, appalling death by electrocution was legal and
frequent. These tortures and giving a
prisoner "the Third Degree", that is, torturing him or her, was not only done but was
part of the normal narrative of normal American
crime films in normal cinemas where we used to go for our delights. Torture in
American society was normal and known about by people all over the world who learned about
the cruel and inhumane electric chair and the water torture and the Third Degree
from people paid to entertain us with those mirrors of American society.
What is surprising then is not that any Washington government
favours torture, or even praises itself
for doing it, but that people anywhere are
surprised at it.
Whatever the differences may be between churches and other ethical bodies they have been, as far as declarations against
torture are concerned, at one in
condemning it. They know as well as
anyone that torture is used with
particular malignancy against people who are struggling against or even appear
to be struggling against injustice and denial of human and civil rights. Yet they still, it seems, have to embrace
heads of state who have torture as part of their programme. So Christians and
other ethical bodies will have to calculate now what it is going to cost them if they refuse to meet or favour or deal with pro-torture politicians. Will they be too afraid of them to refuse them their cloak of
respectability?
In the nineteen fifties the French government used torture
in its war against the Algerians - but there was a startling sequel that time.
Two French army Generals Massu and Bollardiere later engaged in a
fierce public dispute for and against it. That dispute awakened many consciences
in France and other parts of the
world. Nothing with the same significance occurred in Britain or the USA, both torturing countries.
Some universities are helping the cause of sophisticated torture.
Universities which rely less on their prowess in teaching and intellectual
debate and more on money paid by corporations to do research for them are researching just how far
human endurance can go without visible and permanent evidence showing on human body and mind and, less important to some governments, how
far human endurance can go without publicly damaging intellect or body so obviously as to
disgrace governments who do it. A
notable help for vicious governments by
institutions who betray their more
honourable colleagues upon whom we rely
to promote and not hinder the
intellectual evolution of the human race!
One would like to think that in high places, in cabinet rooms, in church
headquarters, places where decisions are made about whether to meet and honour government leaders who favour torture the answer will be No. The great No of
responsible people is a great hope. A
great fear though is that it may not
even be discussed. They may talk about our special relationship, about our many jobs, about international trade, about the bottom line. We can understand their
problem: If you defy the Emperors the Emperors may close your worship and
counting houses and even forbid your Faithful to migrate; that after all is what ghettos are for and it
has happened before.
This is not a bland world we live in. And reality is not
bland.
So will Morality have
the courage to say , "Well, let them. We outlived the
Borgias didn't we?".
No comments:
Post a Comment