“While I am deeply pessimistic about ending torture, I cannot help but hold out some hope that we might diminish it. We are homo torquere, homo tormentum – the animal who tortures and is tortured. That much cannot be denied. But that is not all we are. We are also the animal that hopes.”
Jeremy Wisnewski concludes his detailed research with this summary, having narrated the history of torture, the arguments for and against, the politics and psychology.
It is a book bursting with detail but not a lot of clarity and, from the relatively shallow summary above, torture seems to be an unstoppable procedure, however it manifests itself.
Various kinds are referred to including judicial, punitive, interrogational, dehumanising, terroristic and sadistic.
The so-called civilised world condemns it in the so-called uncivilised world, while the civilised world, in detention compounds such as Abu Ghraib, rushes to defend itself and justify extreme methods to force information from detainees for national and international security reasons.
In a chapter arguing against torture, the obvious moral stance of his conclusion is that “torture is never to be used, under any circumstances, against anyone”.
But is that ever a possibility? Why does torture still exist? Is it possible to eliminate torture completely? Wisnewski notes “the ticking bomb” scenario that is used by some governments: a terrorist is captured; if tortured, he will reveal information regarding the location of a ticking bomb; therefore, the terrorist ought to be tortured; the terrorist is tortured; the information about the bomb’s location is got; the bomb is found and disconnected; therefore torture is justified to avoid catastrophes.
Understanding Torture is an important book, especially with the chilling thought that right now a man somewhere in the world is screaming from the electrodes on his testicles and a woman is being abused to satisfy someone’s notion of torture for the greater good.
