Fighting words
The Poor Man brings us an interesting insight. Bush, the Republican Party, and a great swath of the adult population of the U.S. would simply have once again ignored the latest in a string of damning reports citing confirmed instances of torture and murder in the prisons we operate in the name of the Global War on Terror. This time, though, Amnesty International -- whose people know a bit about getting the attention of the powerful -- decided to call the practice a bad name: "gulag." That got attention.
The point Irene Kahne was making when she used the word "gulag," was to expose the fact that, as Kieran Healy points out, a system of prisons have been set up that are remote islands totally outside the rule of law -- a system indicates that more than a few bad apples are involved here.
Perhaps she should have used a word less associated with the "evil empire," but if she had, is allowing Bush to ignore the report better than giving him the opportunity to dismiss it as "absurd" because of poor word choice?
Got that? Blah-blah torture blah-blah Geneva Conventions … my feelings hurt! This report disempowers me! Amnesty International, with 40 years of fearlessly exposing powerful human rights violators, has no credibility because of a word they used! In a report about government-sanctioned torture, we are going to ignore everything substantive in order to focus on word choice, and this will anchor our critique of Amnesty’s blindness to the big picture! Indeed, Amnesty’s “tortured” criticism only serves to empower the torturers! Why, this story has everything! Irony! Self-reference! Let a thousand dissertations bloom!
Now, traditionally, after the howling has reached a critical decibal level, the critics of Dear Leader should repent and begin firing high-level staff. Sadly for the Bushists, however, Amnesty, having spent the last few decades dealing with the Stazi, the Chinese, and - oh yes - the Gulag’s own Soviet Union, doesn’t assume the position quite as compliantly as your average American media outlet.
The point Irene Kahne was making when she used the word "gulag," was to expose the fact that, as Kieran Healy points out, a system of prisons have been set up that are remote islands totally outside the rule of law -- a system indicates that more than a few bad apples are involved here.
Perhaps she should have used a word less associated with the "evil empire," but if she had, is allowing Bush to ignore the report better than giving him the opportunity to dismiss it as "absurd" because of poor word choice?
posted by John at 2:27 PM
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