We know that some Americans have tortured, in real life, alleged terrorists in captivity. Torturers can quickly become sadistic, whereby the act of exerting abusive power over others becomes eroticized and addictive. This barbarism, as a kind of emotional and psychological virus, can spread into U.S. society.
Former torturers, having regressed, become abusive and domineering husbands, fathers, and bosses—and breed new generations of angry, negative people.
Those of us who watch the TV version of torture are also unconsciously absorbing emotional toxins. Though we may like to think it’s just entertainment, at an emotional level we take in a resonance with the brutish mentality and experience of the torturer, especially when he’s a “good” guy like Jack. We tend to alternate back and forth from that feeling to one already mentioned, an identification with the helplessness of Jack’s trussed-up punching bag. Both of these emotional experiences are highly negative. Our psyche is easily contaminated by negative influences that are registered unconsciously, just as we are not usually aware when environmental toxins enter our bloodstream.
America hasn’t embraced torture as a device, literary or otherwise, but we’re sure flirting with it. TV torture is part of that flirtation. Our intrigue with the evil of torture exposes a great moral and psychological weakness of ours. This weakness consists of us not quite knowing who we are. We haven’t fully embraced our humanity. This is remedied when each of us, one by one, does our part to become fully human.
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