Modern Day Torture Used by the Government
Techniques Is the governments way of saying torture. This Is very prevalent in George Rowel’s dyspepsia novel “1984. ” In the last section of the book, the main character Winston is tortured severely for going against Big Brother and then killed right after. They brainwashed him in the process and got him to believe in things he knew weren’t true. As horrifying that is, it strangely resembles the way the united States government gets information. Though it Is In no way proven to always get accurate Information, the US along with many other countries still use this Orwellian method of control.
The question is why. In 1984, Winston was being tortured as a result of him rebelling against Big Brother. The reason the Party tortured him was because they didn’t want him to die a martyr. They wanted to completely alter the way he thought and make him believe anything they said. Though he hated the Party originally, after torture he was convinced that, “He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother” (Orwell 245). To torture information out of someone is one thing but to change the way they think about something they are strongly opinionated about is another.
This Just shows how much torture he went through and how damaging is was. The Party accomplished their mission in changing his mindset, which is much different than the goals when torturing modern day. Today, torture is used to accomplish a much deferent task. The mall purpose Is to extract Information from people, usually terrorists. When officials get no results after Interrogating a terrorist, they might use enhanced Interrogation techniques. This is a nice way of saying that they physically and psychologically torture information out of them. The reason is they are desperate.
If the officials hind America is waiting for them to find good information, they will get it regardless of how false it is or how inhumane they must be to get it. Even though it is very possible they are being told lies, officials use that Information because they are either desperate for a lead or want to back something up. A fairly recent example Is Bush with the Iraq war. He himself approved of advanced Interrogation techniques and did not seem very sorrowful after seeing images of American soldiers torturing Iraq prisoners. Bush seemed to wave the image off saying they were just a,”few bad apples,” (Bush CTD in Johnson).
He saw little significance in this story suggesting he was not surprised nor appalled. In 1984, It seems that torture Is almost always successful. The Party’s goal Is to make the torture victim believe anything they say, even if it goes against everything the person believes. They are then no longer a martyr and are killed as a lover of Big Brother. However. It is hard to say if anyone really succeeds when torturing modern day. Torturing usually results in three things; false information, psychologically and physically harmed individuals, and disappointed looks from many other nations.
It is dangerous to put value Into any Information received through torture because It can it. If they genuinely know nothing about what they are being tortured for, they will still continuously be tortured until they speak. Bush falsely accused Iraq of holding Weapons of Mass Destruction (Wands) by doing this. This helped spark the Iraq war and lead to the death of thousands of people including innocent civilians. Torture also leads to the physical and psychological pain of the torture victim. In 1984, both of these are evident when Orwell described Cilia’s face and with Winston hanged mindset after being tortured.
In America, evidence of torture is usually not visible on the persons body because many versions of torture are more psychological than physical. Some examples are water boarding or Chinese water torture. Water boarding is the act of trying someone down, putting a rag over their mouth and pouring water over it to mimic the feeling if drowning. They wait until the person begins suffocating to take the rag off for a quick break to ask for information. Chinese water torture is restraining someone on a bed so they cannot move (usually their ands are tied above their head and their head is in a head restraint so it cannot move at all).
They simply let water drop on your forehead one drop at a time usually alone in a room. As time passes, the psychological terror builds up in the victim and they eventually beg for it to stop. Other countries and also Americans see this treatment and begin to question the government. They question the methods of obtaining information and what the government considers inhumane treatment. This questioning does not happen in 1984 because no one knows what happens when someone vanishes and if they so much as questioned Big Brother they would be unwished.
Today’s society is much better because we can question our government and protestor our opinions without being tortured and killed. Orwellian method of torture is used to get people to believe in what the government wants them to believe. Modern day torture is used to get people to give information supporting what the government believes and what it wants to hear. Today, if the government uses torture all they will receive is false information, disappointed looks from American citizens and other nations, and psychologically and physically harmed people.
