Dr. James Benjamin at a fantastic blog called The Left End of the Dial V2.0 offers an equally fantastic post entitled Torture: A Tentative Definition and Outline of Causative Factors. The post is an abbreviation of a longer scholarly article that's currently in press.
As an aggression researcher, James is interested in the psychological and social factors that contribute to the emergence of torture. He closely examines a number of causal possibilities, dividing them into "distal," or longterm background factors that influence one's readiness to engage in violence, and "proximate," or immediate, situational ones. Very insightful stuff!
Photographic Appendix
D.W. Horstkoetter, a seminarian at Union Theological and blogmaster of flying.farther, participated in public witness yesterday to commemorate the International Day in Support of Torture Victims. Check out the wonderful photos he took. (They may take some time to load, so be patient. They're well worth the wait.) Thanks, D.W.!
The Open Invitation to contribute to the
still stands!
Post your thoughts on the question
"What is torture, and is it necessarily immoral?"
(or any variant of said question),
let me know, and the Maiden will link to it.
torture, gitmo, human rights, politics, terrorism
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