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Torture, culture and signs of the times: a reply to John Hinkson.

Article Excerpt
John Hinkson's recent editorial, 'The Culture of Torture' (Arena Magazine, No. 71), raises what is surely one of the most worrying signs of these admittedly worrying times. This is the question of the legitimacy of torture, brought so horribly to the Western public's attention by the images of prisoner abuse from Abu Ghraib prison, formerly one of Saddam's houses of torture but now under US control.

Whatever we might say about the tragic events of 9/11, Hinkson's argument is that the very fact that such a discussion of torture is taking place represents, in itself, a deeply significant event in the life of the world's leading democracy. For the first time since its ratification in 1949, the US administration's policies concerning the detention and treatment of 'enemy combatants' stand in open defiance of the Geneva convention.

The greatest merit of Hinkson's piece is that it does not accept that such a profound change in the accepted terms and scope of 'legitimate' action by the world's leading democracy can be wholly explained in terms of the 'changed world' after 9/11.

Hinkson's contention is that the source of this profoundly worrying 'sign of the times' must be sought deeper in Western culture. Specifically, he traces it back to 'a significant indifference to others ... that is closely related to notions of self-interest' enshrined by our culture's promotion of the freedoms to trade and to pursue individual happiness. With the growing dominance of neo-liberalist economic policy in recent decades, Hinkson contends, the market has increasingly dissolved every solid traditional form of communal life. The result is that we are becoming a culture characterised more and more by 'a fundamental lack of empathy for, and respect of, the Other'.

I am tempted to propose that Hinkson is absolutely right, but for the wrong reasons.

Surely the current US administration's attempts to justify indefinite detention without habeas corpus, as well as the at least tacit sponsorship of the torture of 'illegal combatants' in the 'war on terror' should deeply concern us--if anything any longer can, which is of course Hinkson's worry.

If accepted, as Hinkson quotes Michael Ignatieff, Americans:

... might find [themselves], in short order, living in a national security state on continuous alert, with sealed ... and constant identity checks and permanent detention camps for dissidents and aliens. Our constitutional rights might disappear from our courts, while torture might reappear in our interrogation cells.

We all know too well already how captured Americans and their allies...

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