Thursday, June 21, 2007

Isolation as Torture

"...if you want to erase a man's mind, deprive him of contact with the rest of the world. This has nothing to do with obtaining information: torture of all kinds -- physical or mental -- produces the result that people will say anything to make it end. It is about power, and the thrilling discovery that in the right conditions one man's power over another is unlimited. It is an indulgence which turns its perpetrators into everything they claim to be confronting."

George Monbiot argues that solitary confinement accomplishes the end towards which torturers strive.