RE: When do the ends justify the means?
September 14, 2015 at 10:47 pm
(This post was last modified: September 14, 2015 at 10:51 pm by Thumpalumpacus.)
(September 14, 2015 at 7:34 pm)Losty Wrote: I know many are struggling with the hypothetical that happens to not be true in reality, but I appreciated her actually answering my question instead of coming back with "torture doesn't work" yes...I know.
If you need rewording because you just cannot deal with the story from the movie Taken because it's not real...sure I can try that.
How about this question: did you really need to find out that torture doesn't work for you to decide that it's wrong?
Well, I haven't seen that movie.
Me, my objection to torture is not on practicality, but rather morality. My dad was firehosed by the SAVAK for three days in the Evin "hotel" for having played music too loud, disturbing the sleep of the SAVAK major-general upstairs, so I have a personal repulsion to it. But having thought that through as a boy, I came to the conclusion that beating the "truth" out of someone is generally speaking not a method designed to elicit truth, but rather, to express revenge, which is an emotion I disdain and abjure.
Torture is not only inefficient; it's most often a case of toying with helpless prey. On those grounds alone it should be rejected. The fact that it is also counterproductive is only empirical support for subjective morality.
I mention practicality first because I understand that not everyone shares my views on morality. You need not agree with me that it's wrong in order to agree with me that it's not apt to produce actionable intelligence. (Not that I'm saying you think it's right; I don't believe you do.)
