Torture and Tornadoes; It's a wild ride, kids!

EVENT

Torture and humiliation is a landscape without boundaries, a terrible slope that even the most practiced interrogators can slide down once they allow themselves to apply the slightest physical or psychological pressure. -- James Glanz, New York Times

Her family brims with accounts about how strong willed Private England could be. In one, a thunderstorm and tornado blew into town just as her older sister was preparing to graduate from high school, forcing students and their parents to flee the ceremony. While her family huddled in the lowest spot that they could find in their trailer home, Private England wandered into the yard. Ignoring her family's pleas and with the wind howling as loud as a freight train, she tried to photograph the passing funnel.
-- James Dao, New York Times

* * * * *

One of my favorite plays is the Cenci, by Antonin Artaud. It is based on the real struggles and upheavals within a noble family of Rome in the 1600s, and there are multiple versions in verse and prose, all featuring to some extent treason, torture, incest, and murder. Typically, the herione, Beatrice, is set upon by her monstrous father, but also betrayed and abandoned by her lover, friends, and family.

Artaud maintains this interpretation. His version differs, however, in the inclinations and motivations of all characters. Count Cenci is not the only monster on his stage. Orsino, Lucretia, Bernardo, Giacomo, and even Beatrice are all subjected to the same hunger. It's a hunger for domination... a violent, crushing domination that exerts itself through the reduction of enemies into trivial objects to be toyed with.

Artaud's Beatrice trembles as her hired assassins pounds a nail into her father's eye.

Why is this play a favorite of mine?

It isn't particularly well written. The dialogue is cold and unnatural. The plot is contrived. Many of the characters are awkward, clichè, and superficial. Wait.
I take that back. Many of the characters are awkward and clichè.

There is, however, something truthful and simple and honest and even beautiful and even... accessible in that hunger.

It must feel positively godlike to reduce your enemies to something less.

* * * * *

I'm fascinated with the portrayal of 1930s Germany in film and literature. It's almost as if these people sprang from the womb with black boots on their feet and machine guns in their hands. What a coincidence that a whole nation was born inherently evil!

We want control.
We don't want responsibility.
And we need to know that we're "all right."

* * * * *

To my mind:

Is it our responsiblity to disobey authority when it prods us to do the unconscionable? Yes.
Should we be punished for transgressions we are pressed into? Yes.
Are we alone in our guilt? No.
Are we likely to stop ourselves?

No.

Then why punish?

Because organized society exists to facilitate survival among its constituent members. Actions that explicitly and dangerously counter this function are an aberration to society. There is a time for vengeance and reciprocation and this is it.

Give a fair and speedy trial.
Then harshly punish all found guilty.

* * * * *

Do I think it was merely a matter of obedience, by the way?
I do not.

I read an article once in a photography magazine on how the face freezes by rote into a plastic camera smile. We do this automatically, and probably don't even notice most of the time, but if you look at family portraits there is something still and scripted about the smiles.

Spontaneous shots are different; much more lively and energetic. More honest.
The body and face generally tell the truth, I have found.
If you look at the soldiers at Abu Ghraib, there is a glee that doesn't jive with a reluctant "acting out of orders."

They enjoyed it.

* * * * *

A New York Times article recounts how Private England's mother explains how she couldn't have possibly have been acting independently. I don't think she was, actually, honestly, but the explanation strikes a chord with me:

"She's kind of stubborn," her mother, Terrie England, said. "But that doesn't mean she can't follow orders."

Her family brims with accounts about how strong willed Private England could be. In one, a thunderstorm and tornado blew into town just as her older sister was preparing to graduate from high school, forcing students and their parents to flee the ceremony. While her family huddled in the lowest spot that they could find in their trailer home, Private England wandered into the yard. Ignoring her family's pleas and with the wind howling as loud as a freight train, she tried to photograph the passing funnel.

"You talk about the unusual," Mrs. England said. "That child liked it."

*

At the climax of the Cenci, moments before the two assassins fall upon him, the Count, who has raped his daughter, murdered his sons, and declared war upon authority, turns to the skies and proclaims "I am part of the storm!"

He wasn't the only one...

*

As a nation, we must realize that there is no correlation between cowardice and atrocity. Flaunting cruelty in the face of a complicit but condemning society may require more courage than a genuine passion for justice.

Moreover, we are exempt from nothing.

As peers of the Columbine killers and soldiers at Abu Ghraib, my young generation already has much to account for.

Learn who is guilty, and punish them hard.

But reserve our vengeance for ourselves.

We could just as easily have been the monsters.

~ Connor



Note:

I consulted the following articles to write this post:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/07/international/europe/07MANU.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/07/national/07SOLD.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/08/politics/08ATEX.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/09/arts/09RICH.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/09/international/middleeast/09ABUS.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/09/weekinreview/09glan.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/11/politics/11PHOT.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/12/politics/12CND-IMAGES.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/13/national/13VOIC.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/13/politics/13IMAG.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/13/politics/13SIVI.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/13/politics/campaign/13kerry.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/07/politics/07DEAT.html