[lbo-talk] Americans sorta like torture if it works

[Gar Lipow]

On Fri, Apr 24, 2009 at 11:29 AM, James Heartfield
<Heartfield at blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
> In the 1980s (and before then) the IRA used punishment beatings, interrogation and what I guess would be called torture. So did many other national liberation movements. I wouldn't say that they were right to, or wrong to, only that it was their right to decide what means to use in the prosecution of their cause, and that that was a secondary question to whether their overall cause was just.
>
> A revolution is not a tea party, as Engels explained.
>
> The reason to oppose torture by the state is that you do not trust that state to act in the interests of the people. Is there is an absolute moral case against torture? I don't believe so.

I don't know what to say to this. Part of me just thinks this just a
defect in perception like red-green color blindness. Either can tell
the difference between red and green or you can't. Either you see that
torture is wrong or you don't. Probably way to simple. I tend to be
suspicious of moral absolutes too, but while I can come up with really
good arguments against torture, I'm pretty sure any arguments I come
up with follow and don't precede my opposition.