Torture

Gaston Havandjian Professor Hubbell English Comp I Essay Four 11/13/12 Human Nature: Another Tool For Torture? Driving your car to a dinner with friends you go by hundreds of advertisement slogans at the side of the road. Reading them seems to be a good way to entertain your mind with all those miles ahead and since you didn’t decide what are you going to order yet you think that maybe some of them will give you an idea. One of them captures your attention in a special way, it shows the image of a laughing sheep and below it says: “Meat is real food”. Eureka!

Now you have a guess of what your order will be, but as long as you keep thinking in this phrase you wonder what they meant with the word “real”. If they are stating such a thing it means that they also believe that there is other food that is not real or not as real as meat. A second thought crosses your mind when you remember a column you read in the newspaper a few days ago which was titled as followed: “Studies have found that the consumption of meat and animal products increase the development of chronic diseases including high blood pressure, diabetes, coronary heart disease, obesity, kidney failure, osteoporosis and cancer”.

What if the advertisement was aimed to convince us that meat is good for you when it’s actually not? What if after those studies were revealed the owners of the meat industry felt their businesses threatened and ignoring the facts are still poisoning our bodies and killing thousands of animals a day just for a profit? Vegetables, fruits and grains are not real enough and healthier perhaps? When you arrive to the restaurant you bring up the theme and one of your friends provides a fact which supports the studies credibility, and from your point of view, it gives the whole discussion a clear ending.

He tells you something you didn’t know, that health insurance companies offer discount rates to vegetarians and vegans. Every company’s goal is to make money. Insurance companies determine a person’s risk of death by analyzing his habits and based on these results they charge a fee. In today’s world, where money is more powerful than any religion, government or social institution, there is no better evidence than this to prove that the ingestion of meat is actually not good for humans. For hundreds of years we have been persuaded of the opposite and still are.

What about the people working in the slaughter houses, what would they do if they knew that the blood they spill every day is contributing to reduce our life expectation? Animals are not just being killed for food; they are also being used for the manufacture of products such as milk, cheese, eggs and many other more. Clothing, sport hunting and fishing, entertainment (Circuses, zoos and aquariums) and product experimentation are other examples of how animals are exploited for the “benefit” of man.

The conditions were these creatures live are detrimental. Cages and chains, metal and fire, artificial breeding and separation from their cubs, a life of captivity and a slow and painful death are just a few examples of how they live a life of torture and agony until the day they become a steak on your table or a coat to provide warmth. So, what moves a person to desire working in a place where killing becomes a routine and suffering and fear is perceived by every single sense?

Of course that making a living and the lack of jobs would be one of the reasonable answers, but there should be something else that pushes someone to do such terrible things to these innocent living beings unable to even defend or speak for themselves. Is it something ingrained in our “human nature” or perhaps external agents, such as institutions and industries, convince them that they are working for a great goal? In order to answer these questions we are going to use some ideas taken from a text written by Phyllis Rose titled “Tools of Torture”.

Rose published many books and contributes frequently to periodicals such as the Atlantic Monthly and the New York Times Book Review. Rose situates us in an art gallery in Paris where an exhibition of medieval torture instruments takes place. The high number of different tools that she sees, and the many uses someone can give them, makes her think that “pain must be as great a challenge to the human imagination as pleasure” (Rose 175). This idea is reinforced after she shares her experience of a facial treatment in a dark booth of a beauty salon where she was exposed to ointments and electrodes.

By associating the electrodes with what happened in Algeria and the ointments with masks dipped in acid, she concludes that the aesthetician and the torturer share the same area of expertise; pain, and that “Should that loving attention to the body turn malevolent, you have torture. (Rose 177) The author believes that “The secret of torture, like the secret of French cuisine, is that nothing is unthinkable” (Rose 176) and to illustrate this she uses an analogy where a man is tortured with a wheel and a snail is baked in its own shell.

There are no limits in the world of torture and this fact may be a reason to believe that humans use their imaginary to accomplish the most horrifying things, but “torture didn’t come into existence to give vent to human sadism. It is not always private and perverse but sometimes social and institutional, vetted by the government and, of course, the Church” (Rose 177). Religions are probably the most influential institutions in our societies. They proclaim that the values and norms they promote are the only true and that not living according to them will bring a life of sin and shame and an afterlife of suffering and torture.

Even if we don’t believe in any religion we still live under their rules. Christianity for example, by introducing the Ten Commandments, offered the basis for establishing the moral and legal laws; the institution of marriage is also an exemplar of how we organize our societies based in biblical patterns. It is not the intention of this discussion to analyze if basing our lives according these doctrines is a force for good or not; what seems relevant here is that sometimes the most heinous and aberrant things are justified by uttering these words for the benefit of a certain group of people.

Usually the objective is to persuade a bigger group of people to work for their own causes convincing them that they are doing it for the common good, and the most effective tool to accomplish this seems to be manipulating people’s faith. If we take a look back about five hundred years ago we can see how the biggest genocide in the history of humanity was perpetrated in the name of god. The continent where we live today witnessed how the same people who came to these lands to convert the natives into Christianity broke every single of the rules they believed in.

The main goal of the promoters of this campaign was taking all the gold, silver and riches to Europe and stealing the land, but somehow they managed to make people believe that their true intention was to save the souls of the natives, considered as animals, by making them adopt the true and only religion because that was god’s command. Under these commands it is amazing to see how people can, among other things, “overcome their repugnance to the task of causing physical pain to other” (Rose 177).

Christianity also makes us believe that man is the ruler of this world and that all the other living creatures are at our service. The meat industry, in their many ways to legitimate their business, tries to persuade us that animals don’t feel pain and that ingesting their meat is good for us. In their efforts to keep selling their products they even have paid doctors and nutritionists supporting their cause.

With these powerful institutions favoring the supposed benefits of animal products there is no wonder why we keep using them in our diets with a blind conviction that they are good for us. This seems to be also the main reasons why the workers in the animal industry are able to do their jobs without remorse. Just as “there aren’t squads of sadists beating down the doors to the torture chambers begging for jobs” (Rose 177) there aren’t squads of animal murderers beating down the doors to the slaughter houses begging for jobs.

In hundreds of years of research there’s still no evidence that a human nature exists, and let alone that it coerces us to perform the most atrocious acts. The only thing we share as human beings are our human needs. No matter in which part of the world a person lives all he needs is food, water, air, a shelter and a social group where he feels valued and contented. It is in the interests of certain groups of the society to make us believe just the opposite even if it causes death, suffering and pain.

The more informed we are, the less vulnerable we are to their lies. The author believes that “If taking one’s goals too seriously is the danger, the best discouragement of torture may be a radical hedonism that denies that any goal is worth the mean, that refuses to allow the nobly abstract to seduce us from the sweetness of the concrete” (Rose 178). Hedonism is a school of thought that argues that pleasure is the only intrinsic good but what people finds pleasurable could be rather more personal than social.

This philosophy doesn’t seem to be the answer for the eradication of torture, war or a diet that brings disease and death since it pursues an arbitrary goal. The common goal is not actually a bad path to walk through; the problem appears when what it is believed to be as common is just the goal of a few. Make that goal the fulfilling of the needs of every person in this world and feed them also with the truth so they can make their own decisions and in a few years after that we could be looking into a much more optimistic panorama.

One of the most serious blows to American society and reputation was the highly publicized scandal of maltreatment and abuse of prisoners in Iraq. These incidents, which were uncovered in 2004, happened in the Abu Ghraib prison complex and perpetrated by American personnel under the 372nd Military Police Company.

The abuses came to public notice from the media, which was able to acquire extremely graphic images of the tortures taken by the soldiers involved in the incidents themselves. (Hersh, 2004) Following the incident, the United States Military charged those responsible for the crimes and demoted the officer in-charge of the U.S. prison system in Iraq.

Until now, however, the American public and the world are still reeling from disappointment over the irrationality and immorality of such systematic acts of violence against the Iraqui prisoners which included various forms of physical, psychological, and sexual abuses. More disconcerting than the acts of the abuses, however, is the fact that the soldiers even took photographs of their crimes.

The photographs show the prisoners in shameful conditions, either naked or forced to assume positions suggesting sexual acts with fellow prisoners. Undoubtedly, the photographs show not only violations of basic human rights according to the International Humanitarian Law but also disrespect to the Muslim culture and Islamic beliefs by the American soldiers involved.

Among the most disturbing aspects of the photographs taken in the Abu Ghraib prison is the presence of a woman, Private Lynndie England, posing with her thumbs up while the prisoners are being subjected to inhuman treatment.

In one photo she is shown posing with a fellow soldier while naked prisoners are made to form a human pyramid at the foreground. In another, she poses with the ubiquitous thumbs up sign while at the same time pointing to the genitals of hooded male prisoners lined up. Indeed, the gloating and happy image of Private England is a stark contrast to the cruelty and torment seen from the prisoners who are reduced to the state of animals.

Thus, the pictures should provoke not only outrage from the public but should also lead to a reexamination of the kind of morality and basic sense of decency of military personnel such as England who could derive enjoyment from the clear suffering of her fellow human beings. It is an unfortunate incident that a woman, whom the public expects to be more sensitive to the feelings and emotions of her fellow human being, would be part of the ritual of dehumanization of the prisoners from the physical, emotional, and the psychological aspects of the torture.

It is a disappointing fact that Private England, despite her gender, was able to tolerate highly sexualized abuses that were usually committed by men to show their dominance upon women: rape, brutality, and sodomy.

Aside from being devoid of any sense of morality, the pictures violate public sensitivity and ethics. The purpose of the pictures and the intent of the people who took them therefore become questionable. These images where clearly not meant for an audience, but then, why take them in the first place? Did Private England and her cohorts need a remembrance of how they were once part of the violation and abuse of the Iraqui prisoners?

Upon analysis, the pictures are not only proof of the lack of ethics and sensitivity of the soldiers but also signify a deeper perversion. The abuse of the prisoners, supposedly meant to prime them for interrogation by intelligence personnel, show the ugly characteristic of power play wherein the abusers took freedom upon their prisoners because of their perceived dominant position.

Their main intent is to degrade the prisoners, to strip away their dignity as human beings, and to show them that they are powerless beneath the abusers’ hands. The pictures, then, are part of the ritual of abuse. By exposing the private parts of the prisoner and capturing the moment forever on film or on video, the perpetrators are breaking the person’s will, reducing him or her into an object.

Unfortunately, the acts of the American soldiers reflect the corruption of the entire U.S. military. Hersh (2004) observes that the Abu Ghraib incidents occurred not only because of poor leadership from the direct commanding officer but because of the lack of ’s chain of command.

Moreover, the incidents are an indication not only of the failure of the United States Army but also of American ideals and society to instill respect for human rights and human dignity among its members. It is a great shame and a devastating blow for the world’s superpower and the supposed protector of Democracy, to be associated with blatant acts of human rights violations.

It is in this aspect that the world will continue to be haunted by the images of prisoners from Abu Ghraib. For the people will always remember how Private England smiled and gave a thumbs up sign for the camera while other human beings were being treated as animals in the foreground. Indeed, the torture and abuse of Iraqui prisoners are symptoms of the breakdown of humanity; the images of the grinning the soldiers will therefore serve as a haunting reminder of the capacity of humans for boundless inhumanity.

Works Cited:

Hersh, Simon R. Torture at Abu Ghraib. 10 May 2004. The New Yorker. 31 March 2008. http:// www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/05/10/040510fa_fact

“In April 2004, the American public was stunned when CBS Television broadcast photographs from Abu Ghraib prison, showing Iraqis naked, hooded, and contorted in humiliating positions while U.S. soldiers stood over them, smiling”. (p.5)

Here Alfred McCoy starts his narration. His book “A Question of Torture” is labeled as a penetration study of fifty years American participation in torture propagation, research and practice. The book reveals degrading and inhumane treatment, cruelty and injustice in US history intensified by tragic personal case studies and experiences.

The author deepens in why the tortures were sued, where they were implemented and what the consequences were. It is known that CIA had spent millions of dollars on torture research and the author writes that it combined self-inflicted pain with sensory deprivation with the eternal purpose of creating revolutionary psychological approach. The goal was to develop the first innovation in torture: “Still, if genius is the discovery of the obvious, then the CIA’s perfection of psychological torture was a major scientific turning point, albeit unnoticed and unheralded in the world beyond its secret safe houses”.  (p.7)

The primary techniques in torturing were hooding, isolation, extremes of hot and cold, hours of standing without opportunities to move or to change body position, manipulation of time. In such a way CIA had managed to destroy victim’s senses and his personal identity. All these techniques are claimed to have been used in Vietnam, Iraq, Iran and Central America. For example, Washington is argued to refer to torture in CIA’s prisons and torture-friendly countries.

Nevertheless, information obtained through torturing is really worthless as victims were ready to acknowledge their fault even if they were not guilty. McCoy says that the agency used electric shocks and recruited peopled like, for example, Kurt Plotner. The author concludes that the simplest and cheapest methods work the best and, what is more awful, public accepted them more than physical violence.

Book Discussion

I think that the book “A Question of Torture” is really shocking and impressive study as the author reveals the most contradictive and painful pages of American history.

Nevertheless, the book contributes historical filed as McCoy tends to provide neutral and realistic examples how tortures were used by CIA and where they were used. The author frames historical development of tortures stressing they are sanctioned. He seems to be very concerned with the diminished standards of American nation.

However, I agree with McCoy that tortures are rarely affective and it is simply a like looking for a needle in haystack. The book teaches us that once torture is implemented, it results in mass tortures as, for example, tortures in Argentina and Chile during their ‘dirty wars’. Moreover, mass tortures are linked to increased rates of judicial killings.

The action or practice of inflicting severe pain on someone as a punishment or to force them to do or say something, or for the pleasure of the person inflicting the pain. The handmaids tale is a novel by Margaret Atwood, It describes the life of a woman who is documenting her life as it goes on, As the book progresses we are able to see the amount of torture (physical and mental) that the woman of Gilead receive. Offred and other women in Gilead are well aware of Gilead’s rules and Offred acknowledges the punishments and the torture she will endure if she does not obey.

Throughout the novel we can begin to see Offred disobey the rules and begin fighting the totalitarian regime. Gilead’s rules are enforced by ‘god’ which makes adds guilt to whoever breaks them as you are technically disobeying god. People are very likely to do things when religion is involved and Gilead uses that to its advantage especially when they add the fear and punishment of death. Serena joy, the wife of the commander was a strong advocate for submissive female roles before the war and before the formation of Gilead.

The creation of Gilead has lead Serena Joy to become a housewife. Before the Formation of Gilead, Serena joy used to be a preacher, She emphasized how woman should stay home and how they belong at home. After the totalitarian regime began, Serena Joy quickly realized how she preaches where misdirected, As Offred quotes “She doesn’t make speeches anymore; she has become speechless (pg 56) this is a clear demonstration of how Gilead took her words and twisted them to their advantage and to have power over her and other woman, and with power comes fear.

Serena joy was once a very powerful woman but due to the fact that she cannot reproduce she has very little purpose in society, which begins to create jealousy over Offred who is fertile. Serena feels very resentful over Offred as she has the chance to reproduce and that she is having a sexual relationship with her husband. Serena is forbidden to show any resentful behaviour and must show only gratitude and acceptance towards Offred otherwise her actions would be punishable.

The effect of negativity towards someone else is highly forbidden as it creates conflict and any social interaction is illegal and will result in severe consequences. The amount of fear the Gilead produces over its society is the key factor to keeping control over them. In Gilead, Women are stripped of their pride. They are taken away and isolated from their families and loved ones. Gilead uses this method as a strong method of torture as it leaves women with scared thoughts and broken hearts; inevitably this makes women very weak and desperate.

Offred explains how her husband Luke and her child where taken away from her when they tried escaping the new society. We learn how effective this method of torture is by how Offred is haunted by the thoughts of her daughter and Gilead strictly forbids her to feel any form of emotion; this puts Offred in constant risk especially due to the fact that she suffers throughout the whole novel. In Gilead you are forbidden to be seen in public unsupervised, thus you are forced to be paired with a stranger. You are refused to see your partners face and create unnecessary discussion.

Gilead enforces a physiological fear that a group called the ‘Eye’. The name the ‘Eye’ comes from the all foreseeing eye which means you are being watching you all the time. This builds a fear that no matter what you do you are going to be judged and evaluate it and if you are seen crossing limits you will be punished. This causes Women (and men) to be narrowed down and remain quiet. The Eye is a very effective mechanism of fear as it strips women from their individuality and eventually causes them to stop thinking. The fear it generates is very immense and it deals a torture.

If one is being unlawful and disobedient, you are required by law to report them. Trust is exceptionally hard to build in the new society. Gilead takes this to its advantage as if trust cannot be sustained, that means communication will be cut off; without communication people will eventually fall into depression and feel utterly lonely. Physiological torture is very effective in a society such as Gilead as it allows 100% control over what the people do. Gilead also portrays torture by placing disobedient women on the jail wall, hung by their necks. They are placed in public so that everyone is able to see them.

The government officials keep control by forcing women attend ‘salvaging’s’ in which they are forced to view the execution of woman who’s crimes are not announced. Religion plays a major role in fear. It is used to ensure people fear breaking rules as they would be breaking something that god set them out to do. They are in fear that if they do something in which can result in a consequence, or the fact that they are doing something illegal, they are breaking Gods trust; The Gilead uses that to their advantage as they have greater control if the society is influenced by religion.

Gilead follows an obligatory rule in which woman are forced to have a male counterpart, Gilead is a male controlled society but no matter how much woman are disregarded, they are essential for the successors of the society. Being fertile in Gilead is the only form of power a woman receives, infertile woman are often quickly disregarded. Gilead creates an atmosphere in which if you are capable of producing life, you are granted the chance to live. Women who are infertile are usually disposed of in outskirts of the city cleaning radioactive material or hung.

1. Which question will you be addressing? Write it here:

“Some novels and plays seem to advocate changes in social or political attitudes or in traditions. Which particular attitudes or traditions does Orwell wish to modify? Analyze the techniques the author uses to influence the reader’s or audience’s views. Avoid plot summaries.”

2. Write the question in your own words. This is a chance for you to “unpack” your essay question. Is there a particular angle that you will be pursuing? Do you need to define any key terms? Think of this as explaining the question to someone who is not as well-versed in literary analysis as you are.

In 1984, what social or political traditional is modified? Analyze the techniques that are used to influence the reader’s views.

I. Thesis Statement:

Orwell modifies the social and political traditions of today’s society in order to persuade the reader using strong imagery and word choice, setting, and lack of individualism.

II. Your first point:

The abundance of strong imagery and word choice throughout this book paints clear visions in the reader’s mind, influencing the reader to have a changed view on social and political traditions.

A. Example #1

“Never show dismay! Never show resentment! A single flicker of the eyes could give you away.” Page 36.

1. Briefly describe what you will say about your quote

This gives the image in the reader’s mind that even the slightest look in one’s eyes or face could give away a person, and it give the imagery that all the party members must be blank faced, or having hatred towards Goldstein, at all times.

B. Example #2

“A hideous ecstasy of fear and vindictiveness, a desire to kill, to torture…” page 14

1. Briefly describe what you will say about your quote
This strong word choice in this quote paints the image in the reader’s mind of how the government is filing the party members with hate and violence.

C. Example #3

“The party could thrust its hand into the past and say this or that event- it never happened- that, surely, was more terrifying than mere torture and death.” Page 34.

1. Briefly describe what you will say about your quote

This paints a picture in the reader’s mind of how the inner party could use people as a puppet in order to control the rest of the citizens.

III. Your second point:

Orwell’s use of setting helps persuade the reader to change their views on social traditions.

A. Example #1

“But in the future there will be no wives and no friends. Children will be taken from their mothers at birth, as one takes eggs from a hen. The sex instinct will be eradicated. Procreation will be an annual formality like the renewal of a ration card. We shall abolish the orgasm. Our neurologists are mat work upon it now. There will be no loyalty, except loyalty towards the Party. There will be no love, except the love of Big Brother.” page 267.

1. Briefly describe what you will say about your quote

This sets the stage for a very dark, sterile, and emotionless life. It is appalling to the reader, and it sets the reader off of the idea.

B. Example #2
“Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it. Every concept that can ever be needed will be expressed by exactly one word, with its meaning rigidly defined and all its subsidiary meanings rubbed out and forgotten.” (1.5.23, Syme)

1. Briefly describe what you will say about your quote

This shows that the government is attempting to set the stage and mind of all the people in the CONTROLS SOCIETY AND PEOPLE’S VIEWS/ATTITUDES IN THE BOOK

C. Example #3

“There were times when his nerves so forsook him that he began shouting for mercy even before the beating began, when the mere sight of a first drawn back for a blow was enough to make hum pour forth a confession of real or imaginary crimes.” Page 291

1. Briefly describe what you will say about your quote

This sets the scene of violence and fear, and what more, it is the government
system that is putting this fear and violence into the citizens when they disagree with them.

IV. Your third point:

The lack of individualism effectively influences the reader to change their mind about social and political traditions.

A. Example #1
The Inner Party members wear black overalls, the Outer Party wears blue overalls, and Proles wear regular clothing.

1. Briefly describe what you will say about your quote
This constricts and conforms the party members, not letting them express any individualism to their appearance.

B. Example #2
The thought police

1. Briefly describe what you will say about your quote
The thought police are there to point out anyone that is thinking against the government, and they then have them vaporized. If anyone thinks or even dreams about being an individual, away from the party, the government subjects them to torture in order to brain wash them to be like everyone else.

C. Example #3
“Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it; moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard.’’ Page 9

1. Briefly describe what you will say about your quote
Winston, even in his own room, is never allowed the privacy to say/do what he feels or wants to. There are always people monitoring everything that the party members say/do.

V. What will be the “knockout punch” that you include in your conclusion? 1984 is a warning for the future, a warning for what a totalitarian government could really mean. (but more eloquent…)