I've been gone for three weeks. I needed the time off. Wading neck-deep in the literature of torture--memoirs of torture survivors, psychological profiles of torturers, clandestine torture operations of governments (democractic and otherwise), medical descriptions of the lifelong after-effects of torture, descriptions of torture techniques--makes me feel filthy and exhausted after awhile, and I simply have to get away to recover some equilibrium.
Torture survivors don't have that kind of luxury. They stay in the torture cell long after its actual door has swung open. They endure their torture to the end of their days. There's no vacation from it.
So I'm humbled that I, who have never been tortured, have so little psychological and physical stamina that I must periodically retreat from a blog where I merely write about torture. But so it is.
At any rate, I'm back, with more resolve than ever to help others comprehend what a brutal thing torture's malfiguration of self and society is.
torture, human rights
