Thursday, February 15, 2007

I fear that we will be judged cowards...

and worse, I think that we will deserve it. Gitmo is a national disgrace that Stalin would have greatly approved of. "Extraordinary rendition" is the most freakish euphemism I've heard this side of Goebbels - so we snatch up folks to have them interrogated in countries that sanction and specialize in torture. The military reaches out to the producers of "24" to ask them to tone down the torture.

I would concede that I too am part of the cowardly party that allows this Orwellian nightmare to continue. I have many excuses to offer; all rational and completely understandable and all equally shameful in the face of the power of brutality and outright dishonesty of my government. I think, and am curious, about the power of this shame. Is it an accident or is it a layer of a larger impetus, created long ago by men like Machiavelli and his spiritual descendants Pareto and Bumham, to pay me off for my silence and acquiescence? I was educated as a historian and I think it is past time for me to re-employ those skills.

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