[Leica] The Horror, The Horror

[abridge at dcn.org (Adam Bridge)]

On 5/28/04 <bdcolen@earthlink.net (B. D. Colen)> thoughtfully wrote: 

>
>But why? Let me see: because this is above all, a list of people who are
>supposedly interested in things photographic; because the presentation
>relates to the role of photography in the modern world; because the
>presentation relates to how the uses of photography may or may not
>reflect our social values; because it's interesting to read varying
>viewpoints on issues on public importance.
>

The photos are very troubling - in much the same way as "reality television" is
very troubling to me.

Clearly a process was at work in Iraq, and Afghanistan and possibly in Getmo
although I don't know it, in which prison guards were given extraordinary power
over those in their care and then made to feel good about acts of what, to me
and most people I know, amount to torture. And they were made to feel that what
they were doing was so normal that it was just fine to take snapshots for the
folks back home.

And it's that cheapening of empathy that truly is at the heart of what troubles
me the most. I would suggest that, in the United States that cheapening is
purvasive in the mass media. It's what I was writing about when I was talking
about Janet Jackson's Super Bowl stunt.

It's good that people can easily document what is going on around them. It's
awful when they do horrific things and don't see them as horrific.

I've talked to many survivors of WW II and Vietnam who have awful memories of
those events. None of these were things they would have taken snap shots of for
the folks back home.

There's a cynical and cruel streak within American culture that I find
disgusting. It fills the media and it's a part of the local teen and college
culture -- even though those displaying the behavior would deny it was any such
thing. And it's a part of what passes for political discourse - the vicious
"take no prisoners" approach in which winning is the only thing, that winning is
"best for the country."

I know of no professional military men who feel anything other than revulsion at
the prison photos. Not because they were released but because of the clear lack
of honor and empathy they represent. It's not that they want them hidden - they
want them never to have existed in the first place - that the actions were wrong
and the command structure damaged so badly that they could be allowed.

I heard Al Gore this morning demanding that at least six administration figures
should resign for what is happening. He's right. At at least that many in the
military chain of command should do the same. It's shameful that the lowest in
the chain of command - those who were encouaged - should be left as scapegoat
while those who commanded and should have been over-seeing escape.

I'm angry about this. Hurt that we could undermine our soldiers by freely
allowing them to explore their baser instincts on those in our custody and care.
And I think the problem is cultural and that we will not see it that way.

Adam Bridge