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Torture Pr0n
Dec. 14th, 2014 03:38 amHere's a thoughtful (and explicit) look at how movies and video games present torture as fun and effective. Yes, I said "fun." People play game and watch movies for pleasure. If they are doing that with torture on the screen, particularly in these examples where it is shown in an approving tone, then they find torture to be entertaining rather than appalling. If heroes are portrayed torturing people, then torture is rendered as heroic. It's torture pr0n.
This is troublesome. It makes torture seem okay. It's not okay. It is possible to get usable information out of people with torture, but that's extremely difficult. A majority of victims will, sooner or later, say anything to make the torture stop; it's hard to sort out usable facts from that. Most of the time, even if information is the purported goal, it's really about personal gratification for the torturers and terrorism -- those things are very easy to get once you have a helpless victim. Torture harms the victims, of course, but that's "their problem and they deserved it." Catch is, torture also distorts the personality of the torturers, making small personal flaws into much larger ones. Those people don't stay in small rooms torturing "legitimate" victims. They come home. Maybe they have a spouse and kids. Maybe they lose their temper, and hey, they think that manipulation and violence are acceptable problem-solving methods. Look at the rates of domestic violence among police and military families. Well, now it's everyone's problem.
I don't often write about torture. It's challenging to present realistically without squicking the audience, especially if like me you grew up reading hardcore history books, because people have done some ghastly things to each other. When I do write about it, then it typically causes more problems than it solves. Some of my villains are really into it -- Jasp, for example. You will note that it is not portrayed as acceptable behavior.
If you are torturing people, you are not a hero. Period. You are doing something evil. You may attain your goal. It is still not good. The end does not justify the means; the means determine the end.
This is troublesome. It makes torture seem okay. It's not okay. It is possible to get usable information out of people with torture, but that's extremely difficult. A majority of victims will, sooner or later, say anything to make the torture stop; it's hard to sort out usable facts from that. Most of the time, even if information is the purported goal, it's really about personal gratification for the torturers and terrorism -- those things are very easy to get once you have a helpless victim. Torture harms the victims, of course, but that's "their problem and they deserved it." Catch is, torture also distorts the personality of the torturers, making small personal flaws into much larger ones. Those people don't stay in small rooms torturing "legitimate" victims. They come home. Maybe they have a spouse and kids. Maybe they lose their temper, and hey, they think that manipulation and violence are acceptable problem-solving methods. Look at the rates of domestic violence among police and military families. Well, now it's everyone's problem.
I don't often write about torture. It's challenging to present realistically without squicking the audience, especially if like me you grew up reading hardcore history books, because people have done some ghastly things to each other. When I do write about it, then it typically causes more problems than it solves. Some of my villains are really into it -- Jasp, for example. You will note that it is not portrayed as acceptable behavior.
If you are torturing people, you are not a hero. Period. You are doing something evil. You may attain your goal. It is still not good. The end does not justify the means; the means determine the end.
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