What actually frightens me is that in this discussion we see
ordinary people who can find a way to endorse torture.
It goes beyond whether or not "good" information can be gained
through the application of extreme pain or psychological abuse
(although as has been argued, it's doubtful, at best).
There's a fundamental humanitarian issue at stake.
It's wrong to torture people. It's wrong to tie someone down and
cut, slice, puncture, bend, twist, and break their body in an
attempt to inflict more pain than their mind can tolerate. It's
wrong to administer carefully measured doses of electricity to
interrupt brain and heart function. It's wrong to administer
substances that cause pain and dangle the antidote in front of a
chained victim's eyes, promising release if he'll just
say...whatever you tell him to say.
It brutalizes and dehumanizes both the victim and
the torturer.
And torture is as much about revenge as it is about gaining
information most of the time, okay?
(This is why we have laws. Because the "human animal" has an
impulse to wreak vengence but vengence damages society and breeds
more vengence.)
Also. You know.
Torturing people is wrong.
Most of the world agrees on this. The Geneva Conventions didn't
spring full-grown from the head of Zeus, okay?
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