Conservatives for torture
Michael Brendan Dougherty, in The American Conservative, writes that the devotion of many conservative pundits to the TV drama 24 and its protagonist Jack Bauer, and in particular their enthusiasm at
Bauer's frequent use of torture as a counterterrorist tactic,
indicates that "the conservative movement has become willing
to sacrifice principle to passion and difficult moral reasoning to
utility"
posted by Mr. Spog | 2:33 a.m.
4 Comments:
Mightn't utilitarian reasoning that sometimes justified torture be an example of "difficult moral reasoning" rather than something in conflict with it?
I have no idea what this Bauer character typically advocates or does, but if you're committed to a blanket prohibition against torture, you're ipso facto not engaging in "difficult" moral reasoning at all.
As for the passion/principle distinction, banning torture is as likely to be the product of passion as engaging in torture is.
I believe that this is my first comment on your blog, so I should say that I think it's very good.
Thank you and welcome. On the passion/principle distinction, from the "American Conservative" article and a few other places I gather that the show repeatedly presents atypical "ticking bomb" cases where torture of the evildoers is clearly justifiable, so that difficult moral reasoning is not really involved. But this perhaps innocent escapism is reportedly having the effect of convincing some people who ought to know better that torture is more generally justifiable. This seems to be an effect at the level of passion rather than reason. Though rereading the article I get the impression that the show may be causing some to lose contact with reality, more than to apply their passions to it. ("To everyone who goes to work today protecting you, me, our families, freedom: Remember Valencia" -- Kathryn Lopez.)
I haven't thought much about where the dividing line between acceptable and unacceptable torture would lie, but I doubt it can be located solely by utilitarian reasoning, as this presumably wouldn't make much of a distinction between torture of the guilty and of the innocent.
Anyone who has actually seen the show should feel free to weigh in here...
By the way, what does the Latin motto on your blog mean? The InterTran machine translator
renders it as "Certainly in fact not out of like marble engraved either out of robare dolati are," which is a bit puzzling.
Yes, the show sounds awful but I don't watch a lot of TV. I agree with what you say.
My blog's motto translates (not that I really know much Latin) as "Certain it is that man is neither from marble sculpted nor from oak carved" (doing it sort of word for word). Then, if I remember rightly, Cicero (for it is he) goes on to say that we are feeling, sympathizing beings and that psychological fact makes us what we are. It's partly a reference to my dissertation topic, which was sympathy or empathy.
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