On Torture Considered As One Of The Fine Arts: Zero Dark Thirty

As you must know by now, Thomas De Quincey, whom I often conflate and mistake for Daniel DeFoe, wrote a pamphlet entitled On Murder Considered As One Of The Fine Arts.

I have finally decided to view the film Zero Dark Thirty after a year.

I decided to wait until the release of the Senate Committee Report on the CIA and Torture.

I also watched Jean Seberg in Joan of Arc.

The Inquisition seemed to know quite well that information gained under torture is worthless.
Not so American 21st century policy makers. Not so President Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney, and all the vile Minions indwelling in the caves of Langley, and all the Mengeles of psychology who oversaw the torture.

We are making the future as we sleepwalk through life, and walk the knife-edged expressionistic roof tops like Cesare under the spell of our Caligaris, our Caligulas, our Cagliostros of celebrity, nobility, and mud.

Read one of the few perceptive reviews of the time on this ghastly cinematic brief pro torture :
Zero Conscience in “Zero Dark Thirty”
By Jane Mayer
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/zero-conscience-in-zero-dark-thirty

Read about how the film "shows the complexity of the debate".

If they had watched Joan Of Arc, the debaters might have gotten a 400 year leg up on the discussion.
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