Apologies to the many fans of 24 that I know....I remember trying to watch the first season of 24 and spending the whole time laughing hysterically at the melodrama...and at how you can predict every line and every event before it happened...and I spent the few episodes of season two doing a little less laughing and a lot more gagging at what I today find articulated in the Guardian :
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Slavoj Zizek
Both terrorist and CTU agents operate as examples of what the political philosopher Giorgio Agamben calls homo sacer - someone who can be killed with impunity since, in the eyes of the law, their life no longer counts. While they continue to act on behalf of the legal power, their acts are no longer constrained by the law. It is here that we encounter the series' ideological lie: in spite of the CTU's ruthlessness, its agents, especially Bauer, are warm human beings - loving, caught in the emotional dilemmas of ordinary people.
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Therein also resides the lie of 24: that it is not only possible to retain human dignity in performing acts of terror, but that if an honest person performs such an act as a grave duty, it confers on him a tragic-ethical grandeur. The parallel between the agents' and the terrorists' behaviour serves this lie.
But what if such a distance is possible? What if people do commit terrible acts as part of their job while being loving husbands, good parents and close friends? As Arendt says, the fact that they are able to retain any normality while committing such acts is the ultimate confirmation of moral depravity.
But what if such a distance is possible? What if people do commit terrible acts as part of their job while being loving husbands, good parents and close friends? As Arendt says, the fact that they are able to retain any normality while committing such acts is the ultimate confirmation of moral depravity.
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article 2
2. No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political in stability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.
3. An order from a superior officer or a public authority may not be invoked as a justification of torture.
3. An order from a superior officer or a public authority may not be invoked as a justification of torture.
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3 comments:
I love 24! The agents argue that what they do (although may be wrong) is "THE ONLY WAY" to prevent chaos or put "hundreds of thousands of people's life at stake" :/
Sorry 3baid...may apologies again to the fans...I just really can't stand the show..and that might be something wrong with me, considering how popular it seems..but I just find it almost as acceptable as a muddled up and really thin soap opera..but not quite as admirable..
But I really did try to like the show...I watched almost two seasons before i gave up..
As for the torture bit..no matter what the reason, it is unacceptable..especially since it has been admitted that torture often actually leads to false confessions and can make things worse rather than better...it's another failure of the imagination for us humans..that's my thought on it..
Well I agree with Kwtia, torture is just the most horrible act used nowadys in what we think is a civilazed world. I don't agree with media displying torture scenes to make it an acceptable idea.
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