{"id":263,"date":"2005-03-01T11:15:31","date_gmt":"2005-03-01T16:15:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/?p=263"},"modified":"2005-03-01T12:25:25","modified_gmt":"2005-03-01T17:25:25","slug":"to-lighten-your-day-torture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/?p=263","title":{"rendered":"To lighten your day: Torture."},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite the comments of a few people up front, this MetaFilter thread<\/a> about torture holds all kinds of interesting and volatile questions. As often is the case, jonmc, the former cockeyed absurdist, sums the true question up nicely in a couple of his comments:<\/p>\n

“Art can often provide catharsis, when the protagonist or hero does what we would like to do to a wrongdoer but can’t because of legal or moral restrictions. Escape valve or tacit approval?”<\/p>\n

“Art isn’t obliged to provide us with role models, merely reflect reality, right? Big questions.”<\/p>\n

I hate to be paranoid, but I am. This whole scenario of torture appearing on major TV shows, torture not as evil but as necessary and in the hands of the heroes, is to me an obvious ploy by media to get us to slowly accept the horrors of some of our actions since 9\/11. To be certain, torture has been used throughout our bloody history, but never were we expected to accept it. It was hidden and, when discovered, severely punished even if the person was “just doing their duty.”<\/p>\n

Now, instead of angry letters condemning the glorification of torture, we hear more about (even today) whether Janet Jackson’s strangely unarousing nipple indicates moral decay. It’s an argument that has never died, only become more ludicrous: is sex (which harms none when properly applied) somehow more corrupting than violence?<\/p>\n

My feelings on the matter are obvious. Opinions of the masses to be found in that thread above. Read.<\/p>\n

P.S. I’ve just recently joined MeFi. Combine that with my lack of real work to do this week, and Buddha’s Bellyaching may as well be called MetaFilterFilter.<\/p>\n

P.P.S. By bizarre providence, the one-a-day George Carlin calendar I have at work is also about torture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite the comments of a few people up front, this MetaFilter thread about torture holds all kinds of interesting and volatile questions. As often is the case, jonmc, the former cockeyed absurdist, sums the true question up nicely in a couple of his comments: “Art can often provide catharsis, when the protagonist or hero does […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1,2],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p73iP8-4f","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":895,"url":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/?p=895","url_meta":{"origin":263,"position":0},"title":"Awesome!","date":"11\/10\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Just in time for NaNoWriMo. Get on it, my writer friends. I'm not going to submit myself to this torture, but you most certainly should. Write or Die : Dr Wicked's Writing Lab","rel":"","context":"In "Ennui"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":963,"url":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/?p=963","url_meta":{"origin":263,"position":1},"title":"Silent minority","date":"3\/10\/2009","format":false,"excerpt":"This article I don't care much about, and I think Huffington Post can be overboard on the liberal tip, but this is a solid point. I've always been amused at the idea that a religious person can say that an atheist will burn in hell as a result of their\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ennui"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":970,"url":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/?p=970","url_meta":{"origin":263,"position":2},"title":"Bloodless (edited for publishing)","date":"4\/13\/2009","format":false,"excerpt":"This was originally published on 2-29-09 (Leap Day); I edited some of the specifics down, but I think it's fairly poetic, if tainted with my maudlin style. -- The shower has always been a place of meditation for me. While my hippie leanings tell me I'm using too much water,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Poetry"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2729,"url":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/?p=2729","url_meta":{"origin":263,"position":3},"title":"And when you can’t crawl…","date":"11\/4\/2015","format":false,"excerpt":"And when you can't write, let others do it for you. I'm sitting here, compulsively checking facebook, waiting for any one person to give me any validation, ignoring the \"likes\" I hate and the posts that probably mean the most. I have fully committed to an avoidant personality. 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