The Christian Science Monitor had an article on Friday about the inrease in portrayals of torture on TV over the past year. Their research showed “70 instances of scenes of graphic torture or sadism on network entertainment TV from Sept. 1, 2001, until earlier this month. In the two-year period previous to this, it logged 79.” Twice as many.
Repeated exposure to images like this can’t help but inure us to the real pain and terror of physical and psychological torture as practiced around the world. I wonder if it’s any coincidence that Time magazine reported in April that “45% of Americans surveyed supported torture to prevent attacks.”
What do we imagine when we think of torture as it may be practiced by our own government? It wouldn’t be ripping out fingernails, would it? Electrical charges to the testicles? Mock executions? No. We’re the good guys. We’d do something simple and humane like a “truth serum“, right?
And, anyway, even if we did torture those suicidal Taliban down at Camp Delta, it couldn’t be more horrible than when Willow ripped off Warren’s skin on the season finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, could it?
Could it?
