Since I’ve never watched the show I did some reading about it online, here are a few of the things I found. In its first five seasons there were nearly 70 scenes of torture, more than any other show on television, Melissa Caldwell, the Parents Television Council's Senior Director of Programs, said, "24 is the worst offender on television: the most frequent, most graphic, and the leader in the trend of showing the protagonists using torture."The illustrations of torture as effective and necessary have brought quite some criticism from human rights activists, military officials, experts in questioning and interrogation, and even from fans of the TV show. Stephan King, an admitted fan of 24, wrote, "There's also a queasily gleeful subtext to 24 that suggests, 'If things are this bad, why, I guess we can torture anybody we want! In fact, we have an obligation to torture in order to protect the country! Hooray! Yet Jack Bauer's face — increasingly lined, increasingly haggard — suggests that extreme measures eventually catch up with the human soul."
One of the FBI's best experts in questioning techniques, Joe Navarro, also attended the meeting. He told The New Yorker, "Only a psychopath can torture and be unaffected. You don’t want people like that in your organization. They are untrustworthy, and tend to have grotesque other problems."
I’ve been thinking long and hard about where I stand on this issue, but I just don’t know. I’ve never been the kind of person to enjoy watching violent movies, but this is different. It’s about protecting our country. If someone took your family for instance, and was going to hurt them, and you had a hunch who that person was, to what extent would you go to get them to talk? To save your family? What if it was hundreds or thousands of people in danger? I wish there were another alternative but unfortunately its effectiveness would probably be minimal in comparison
On the second page of the reading “What Would Jack Bauer Do?” there is a quote by General Patrick Finnegan, dean of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, he said “The disturbing thing is that although torture may cause Jack Bauer some angst, it is always the patriotic thing to do.” The patriotic thing to do? That just sounds horrible, although swaying on the whole subject of torture, I can’t bring myself to agree with that statement. To me it just makes the whole idea of patriotism sound unethical. I can see why in some cases it may be absolutely necessary, but to say it’s the patriotic thing to do is going a little too far for me.
I was talking to Kathleen in the library about all this, and I’ve come to the decision that I just don’t want to know, maybe I can convince myself that it’s for the best if I don’t see or hear about it. That might sound ignorant, but it’s all I can handle right now. Oh, here's a funny little comic I found-
http://www.rall.com/uploaded_images/2-16-08-739618.jpg
Hey Christina, I think that you had a very interesting blog this week. First off, like you, i have never seen '24' or even heard of the show before the readings this week. I think that it is very interesting that you found out that in the first five seasons, there have been seventy scenes of torture. That is just crazy to me. It is also very interesting to think about in context of all the debate over our current interrogation techniques. It seems we are always hearing how bad torture it, yet the American people support '24'. I also feel this is interesting because the way terrorist were waterboarded seems a lot more humane than some of the torture scenes from this show.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with you on the point that the topic of torture is a tough one. As we grow up, we are taught that we are to be nice to everyone and that violence is bad, yet we use these techniques on prisoners? This may seem a little hypocritical but the way i see it is that these people that torture techniques are use on are people that want to cause harm to innocent people. They are not the innocent ones. When I think about the issue I feel that it is a successful technique that has saved thousands of lives, just look at the fact that our country has been safe for the past eight years. I also do not know if I personally could carry out these techniques, I probably could if it was hitting close to home, but hopefully no one is put into this situation.