...Director Mike Hayden responded to then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump publicly pledging to use torture against terrorism suspects, including the infamous tactic of waterboarding. Hayden is a strong advocate for the CIA’s post-9/11 program of “enhanced interrogation techniques,” a variety of torture tactics, including waterboarding. However, since the CIA officers and contractors employed these techniques, executive order and law now ban their use. Does Hayden’s remark signify a long-term change in CIA attitude towards coercive interrogation techniques, or is it indicative of another lull before parts of the Agency revive the practice?...
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...The Morality of Torture The authority of using torture as a punishment in the past has been a cause for conflict. Today, some people see torture as an efficient form of punishment; they believe it is especially necessary in the treatment of terrorist prisoners or prisoners for the purpose of pulling information. Some writers make up fake situations to blow the advantages of torture out of proportion, claiming that it is danger free, low cost and useful for getting fast response. However, after carefully thinking through the arguments used by many torture supporters, one will figure out that the arguments of torture supporters are false. Writers who support torture show less logic, but rather offended anger to evil violence. The use of torture as а form of punishment should be prohibited because contrary to the arguments of torture supporters, it does not serve а purpose, is against international law, and will only perpetuate hatred and retaliation. (Davis) According to, the International Statuette, Torture is any kind of use of force, mental or physical used on a human being to gain third party information or self-confession. No country prefers to use it but is forced to do in order to safeguard the lives of its citizens and smoothen justice. (Greenberg) Most criminal suspects go through some level of torture. Torture may involve Physical methods like starvation, beatings, burning, sodomy as well as psychological methods such as verbal abuse, solitary confinement, and sleep...
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...The storyline encompasses the act of torture which helps the tone giving it a fearful connotation. The concept of torture helps with the tone because when you hear torture you think of despair, agony, frustration, helplessness, and angst. In the torture room, the weapons were displayed in an array of intense looking arms to create a menacing scene; the environment and setting just scream out the gothic style. How the characters’ personalities tie in with the conflict of the story also describes the tone. The fact that a torture room and people being tortured in an ancient gothic architecture style building was enhanced into the film shows that Edgar Allan Poe knew what was being conveyed in his literature and he knew how to use them uniquely and effectively. This concept gave the movie a sinister outlook and also hinted at how the characters would...
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...Stacey Fischer 12/02/14 Analytical Paper #2 Michael Foucault Michael Foucault is one of the more modern sociological theorists of our time, relating to Marxist theories greatly. Foucault was born in France in the year of 1926. He became very well educated throughout his academic years. He followed in the footsteps of Emile Durkheim and many other French philosophers, and attended École Normale Supérieure in 1946. While attending École, he was greatly influenced by Hegel through his professor Jean Hyppolite and his "interpretation of his work" and Marx ideas through his professor Louis Athusser and his "structuralist readings (Gutting). Marxism contributes heavily to one of Foucault's earliest writings, the introduction to Dream and Existence by Ludwig Binswanger happened to be influenced by Heideggerian thought, and as a student of Heidegger, so was Foucault (Gutting). After finishing at École, he held a handful of different positions throughout the 1960s, at French Universities. Later in 1969, he received the upmost and highly respected position of professor of History of Systems of Thought. He worked this position up until he fell victim to AIDS and later died in 1984 (Gutting). One of Michael Foucault's later and most famous writings are Discipline and Punishment: The Birth of the Prison. Published in 1976, this book looks at and studies the genealogy of the modern penal system implemented. That is, prison is the heart of the modern discourse of punishment. Foucault socially...
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... Horror Genre Genre theory is used in film studies to assist in the facilitation of the film category. A genre is a type or category (Goodykoontz & Jacobs, 2014). A genre is dependent on the factors varying in story lines and what the audience are expecting. The theory creates shortcuts in the description of the film. A genre theory is useful and efficient in shortening academic works. Horror films seek elicit emotions that is a negative reaction from viewers by playing on the viewer’s primal fear. The horror films often deal with the fears of the viewer, nightmares, revulsion and unknown terrors. The plots of this genre include evil forces, personage or event, into the world we live in. The elements of the story include werewolves, ghosts, demons, serial killers, cannibals, evil witches, monsters, vampires, vicious animals, gore, and extraterrestrials. Genre helps the viewers decide what kind of films they enjoy watching. I will be discussing a summary of the movie Saw, what genre the movie is and what other sub-genres exist in this movie. One film that fits into the genre of horror is Saw. This film was made in 2004 and was directed by James Wan. The stars in the film were Danny Glover, Cary Elwes, and Leigh Whannell. This movie is about a .psychopathic killer who is set on teaching his victims the value of life by putting them into demented life or death games. It starts out with two men sitting on the floor of a dirty...
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...well-known criminals and terrorists (DeMaille, 2007). In the United States, prisons house more than two million prisoners. The majority of criminals in the prison system are because of drugs and violent crimes. As of the end of August 2010, there were approximately 210,000 prisoners in federal prisons with about half of those for drug related crimes (BOP, 2010). In the United States there are two well-known federal penitentiaries. They are Alcatraz, which is closed, and the Leavenworth Penitentiary in Kansas. The biggest drug related crimes is transporting illegal drugs across state lines. Prior to the American Revolution, the American prisons were not used for punishment, there were used mainly for executions and physical torture. They built prison walls to keep the prisoners in and to keep the public from seeing what was going on inside those...
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... | | |Should the state employ torture as a method of obtaining information for the sake of protecting its citizens? | | Immanuel Kant’s philosophy is driven by his passion and concern for the dignity of the individual autonomous will. He believed that autonomous will has worth in itself because it is an end in itself. (Otteson,2009) If one is a Kantian, the use of torture to obtain information from a human being would not be an option. A true Kantian believes that all humanity should be treated with respect both in themselves and in others but never as a means to an end. In addition, one is never permitted to abuse someone’s humanity. The violent act of torturing another human being for any given reason is not moral. Further, to apply universal morality to this act the state would have to enforce the same treatment for everyone they need to obtain the truth from. Moral laws are universal principles of which all human beings are subject to. There are no excuses for breaking the moral law nor can it be manipulated to cover one’s self. A Kantian would also disagree with the maxim or reasoning behind the State’s means to use violence on another human being. There is no justification that would allow anyone to inflict harm to another human being, hoping to benefit from the act. The act of torture causes pain to the individual and the affects all parties connected to them....
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...Everyday people turn on the television set and see violence things happening all over the world. With the way violence is publicized over the news, television, Internet, radio, movies and games it is no wonder that people feel that the world is more violent then any other time in history. But, in my option, if you look at our history, you will see that the world today is no more violent than has been in the past. It is rarely known why someone would commit a violent act upon another person. The spectrum of violence can range anywhere from a scuffle between two individuals to a full scale World War among many nations. Generally, violence is associated with aggression, brute force, and the intention of causing harm. Political, social, religious, economic, criminal and personal differences are some of the most passionate issues we face as human beings. They are often the most common reasons for violence as they are often how people define themselves. (Alder & Denmark, 2004) Violence on a political level may be used to protect citizens or defend from outside forces. Ethnic or racial groups may use violence to fight against oppression and discrimination. Religion can also be a driving force of violence, because of differences in religion or performing terrorist attacks in the name of God. When someone assaults, robs, or commits a homicide there is usually violence involved. Emotions are probably one of the biggest triggers of violence. Individuals can be easily perform...
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...Kevin Orcutt created the Orcutt Police Nunchaku (OPN) in 1982. Since then, more than 250 departments across the country have used the OPN, including Bexar County Fire Marshals, Travis County Sheriff’s Office, Hays County Sheriff’s Office and Austin Police Department. The Denver County Sheriff’s Office has used them for 25 years and states they “wouldn’t be able to function without them.” Every cadet goes through the three day Basic Course. In the past 34 years they have been sued twice, Forrester vs. City of San Diego (Dismissed) and once in Los Angeles where Orcutt was absolved of any wrongdoing because the officer at fault had never been certified in their use. San Diego still uses the OPN but Los Angeles does not as part of the settlement...
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...directed two anti-colonialism in the 1960, when most of the movie-going audience was probably comfortably numb to the plight of the Third World. He created a film genre (anti-colonialism) that while at first controversial would eventually become a mainstream source for modern classics. He was one of the first directors to take on the challenging subjects of terrorism and torture, in an era where the preferred treatment of the historical film was sterilization, not realism. Pontecorvo portrayed women realistically, not as an idealized pieces of scenery. Most important, Pontecorvo achieved the admirable feat of creating films that accurately reflected historical accuracy and cinematic excellence. And he did all this while advancing a political thesis. In The Battle of Algiers (1966) Gillo Ponetcorvo uses factual content extrapolated from the history of the Algerian War to demonstrate a historical lesson: to defeat an ideologically entrenched, locally supported underground nationalist movement, you must employ measures (suppression of civil liberties, police brutality, military aggression, and eventually torture) that while crucial to winning battles against underground networks (like the FLN in Algiers) in the short run, these counter-insurgency actions will ultimately serve to bolster the opposition to authority in the long run. Eventually, as Pontecorvo's coda suggests, the tactics of the counter-insurgency will validate the nationalists' ideological protests and the result will...
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...of betrayal of The Party can have outsized repercussions and a misplaced reaction or glance can result in torture and death. Furthermore, The Party sponsors programs, such as the Spies program for young children, to promote a culture of betrayal from a young age. By encouraging children to turn in parents and friends, betrayal becomes commonplace. Individuals often feign disloyalty to seek out truly disloyal individuals. For example, Mr. Charrington is seemingly only a shop owner but is actually a member of the...
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...the Party goes to extreme lengths to torture and brainwash their citizens to achieve utopian concepts. In Terry Gilliam’s film, Brazil (1985) the authorities operate behind the shadows, using technology to manipulate the masses and to eliminate the emotions of the citizens. In the real world, similar examples are evident; in North Korea, these stories are truer than ever. To be more specific, overseers order...
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...Is Capital Punishment justified? Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, can be defined as "the premeditated and planned taking of a human life by a government in response to a crime committed by that legally convicted person" (White). The death penalty is executed in many countries whether they are developed, developing or underdeveloped nations. Many different types of execution are used around the world. The most common forms would be lethal injections, electric chairs, and gas chambers. In many countries execution by shooting, stoning, hanging or beheading are still used. One can argue that capital punishment has positive impacts, although statistics, research and professional studies show serious flaws. By using a system that values retribution over rehabilitation, men, women, and even children, are all put at risk of facing execution whether they are truly proven guilty or wrongfully convicted. The death penalty is unjustified because it is fundamentally immoral, ineffective in preventing crime, and sometimes mistakenly used to punish innocent people. The possibility of execution of an innocent citizen is reason enough for capital punishment to be considered an injustice. Since 1973, over 140 people in America have been wrongfully convicted and exonerated from death row due to the evidence of their wrongful conviction. (Amnesty International) “We all make mistakes” is a phrase often used and demonstrated through human behaviour. However, this mistake...
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...attributed to our constant interaction on smart phones, which can be justified as a miniature telescreen in our pocket. "Torture Chambers" & "Forced Labor Camps" In 1984 - Anyone who commits a physical or thought crime against the Party is subjected to punishment. They are arrested, and then sent to "forced labor camps" for small offenses or to the "Ministry of Love" to be tortured for conspiracy. Winston is tortured in multiple cruel ways and endures starvation, regular beatings, humiliation, intense psychological suffering. The most detailed torture was his intense experience with starvation. Along with many other prisoners, Winston was starved to the point where he was too weak to lift his head, his hair was falling out by the clumps, and he couldn't recognize himself in the mirror. In the Past - During Hitler's reign of power in Germany political enemies such as German Communists, Socialists, and Social Democrats, along with anyone who opposed the Nazis were incarcerated into "Concentration Camps". In these camps the prisoners would be forced to complete exhausting labor varying from working in construction to mining in coal quarries. They were refused any of their personal rights such as trials, and lived in miserable quarters without a steady supply of substantial food or clean water. In addition, many of the prisoners were subjected to supplementary torture. Today - Guantánamo Bay is a U.S detention camp located in Cuba intended for the internment of "enemy combatants". Enemy...
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...The Pit and The Pendulum is arguably one of Edgar Allan Poe's greatest works. The Pit and The Pendulum spins a web of insanity over the main character during the Spanish Inquisition. The setting of the story helps shroud it in the theme of fear, torture, and madness. The pit, i believe symbolizes humanity's fear of the unknown, it can also represent the gate to hell, seeing how this story is set during the Spanish Inquisition this theory is highly plausible. Also the psych of Poe himself can be used as an example of an effective horror tone and atmosphere. But this story isnt just horror is it? No this goes much deeper than that by addressing the malleability of the human mind. In the text it states that the narrator witnesses a trio of white candles turn into angels and then shift to his tormentors. What sets this story apart is that it instills a feeling of terror into the reader with its heavy emphasis on the senses of the narrator, unlike poes other works such as the Tell-Tale Heart and The Raven which rely on the supernatural element typical of horror stories. The pendulum which filleted anyone unlucky enough to be caught in it’s wake, symbolizes the fallibility of humans as a whole and the march of time till death. As the narrator describes it as swinging by every one second. This helps create an extremely tense atmosphere during the scene in which the narrator is tied down with the pendulum swinging by every one second, Poe masterfully executed this in a way that you...
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