TORTURE

This could be an eminent juncture in human existence. A rare opportunity to establish the immutable primacy of The Individual Human Being in the universe, and an irrefutable rejection of any and all collective (statism, theism, government, religion, country, church, etc.) claim to superiority—aka the death of the Leviathan. It is the present clash over “torture” as a “right” of the state to protect itself that spawns this opportunity; it may never come again.

This letter-essay is prompted by Huffington Post columns by Arianna Huffington, “The Torture Moment;” by Howard Schweber, “Torture and the Problem of Constitutional Evil;” by Trey Ellis, “Never Again;” and a few others. Since the “comment space” for such columns rarely accommodate a gourmet recipe, and any creditable comment on the torture issue demands it, I shall mail them my “comment,” and place it on my web and blog at http://www.bobclapp.com/.

All of them, particularly Mr. Schweber, learnedly condemn torture as evil, but leave wiggle room for “constitutional” interpretation, even though Mr. Schweber admits an “overwhelming urge to throw up,” and Mr. Ellis wonders, “Can we fight an extremist enemy without becoming one ourselves?” and Ms. Huffington questions, “whether we are indeed a nation of laws.” Essentially they are proponents of pragmatism: “Do the Ends Justify the Means?” and utilitarianism, “The greatest good for the greatest number.” Their confusion springs from the unavoidable conclusion of both: In the end both metaphysics equal the maximum evil for the minimum number.

So, at this particular moment they hate torture, declare it evil, but they could never bring themselves to indict the state to BE the very genesis of evil—Period! They would never underwrite Bastiat’s cold, hard truth,

Under totalitarian government man exploits man; under democratic government it’s the
other way around.

In my words, they would never subscribe to the infallible fact that the individual human being is the only sentient existent in the universe whether among 300 million American individuals, or a Tom Hanks as a “castaway,” on an unpopulated island! However, in their view the individual human being is devalued for some greater good: God and country. And, can be sacrificed for that literal non-existent!

All of them are sworn to an authority greater than the individual human being, like a god who would order Abraham to kill his son, or a state that would order the dropping of “smart” bombs on a children’s hospital then name each child “collateral damage,” or a brain dead president who would order torture, uh . . . because he wants to.

Adulation of flags and bibles; Popes and Presidents; constitutions and commandments is supported by their Humpty Dumpty view of language described by Lewis Carroll,

When I use a word Humpty Dumpty said, it means what I choose it to mean. The
question is, said Alice, whether you can make words mean so many things. The
question, said Humpty Dumpty, who is master—that’s all!

Surely Humpty would approve of the way our journalists mince the words “evil” and “torture.”

Speaking of words, the most redundant drivel coming from the mouths of media talking heads is, “until Bush and fellow demagogues started torturing, the United States did not use torture.” What selective ignorance. Not only has the U.S. historically used torture, but has trumped it many times over by using genocide, infanticide, and good ‘ole murder! There is simply no room in this essay to recite that history. So, I suggest these myopic fools forget their 3rd grade to 12th grade propagandized history and read the most reputable and honest historian in America today (most likely ever,) Howard Zinn. I suggest his book, A People’s History of the United States, 1492 – Present. It should help Mr. Schweber “throw up,” and answer Mr. Ellis’ concern about the U.S. “becoming an extremist.”

Newsweek magazine asks, “Is Afghanistan Obama’s Vietnam?” The inescapable logic exploding from that inquiry leads to the conclusion that a My Lai, or two, is inevitable, and a Nick Ut photo of an Afghan 9-year-old Pham Kim Phuc seared naked while fleeing U.S. napalm is a certainty. So why then is Obama any better than Kennedy, Nixon, or Johnson?

Evil is the nature of the state; war and torture are its natural tools. The state does not acknowledge the real or virtual existence of the individual human being. The most brilliant depiction of this phenomenon is when Orwell has O’Brien say to Winston in 1984,

You do not exist. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of
torture is torture. The object of power is power!

If, as I wrote at the beginning, this is to be an eminent juncture in human existence then Obama, mainstream journalists, honest intellectuals like Mr. Schweber are morally mandated to indict Leviathan in general and the United States government in particular as complicit in the genesis of evil.

Personally, I do not believe such courage exists among people who hold power or extol power. How can they when we still honor Columbus Day? (Grab your Zinn if you don’t get it.) In the final analysis I agree with H.L. Menchen,

Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black
and begin to slit throats.