Torture Again . . . Sorta
Feb. 8th, 2007 11:28 pmThe Society of Ethnomusicology has issued a position statement on torture. They're opposed to using music for torture. There's two kinds of ignorance being exposed here. First that they missed the use of rock music against Noriega as the start of this. Second that the word torture has definitions, and making someone listen to music is only torture in the figurative sense. The legal definition is inflicting pain on someone (how much pain qualifies has been resolved by court cases). So music isn't torture. Granted, 48 hours of "Achy Breaky Heart" or the Barney theme song might crack me. I wouldn't want cops to have that as an interrogation technique. But for the enemy, go for it.