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you would have thought that the experience of the inquisition would have been enough on its own to dissuade folk from using torture to extract "confessions"---the meaning of which is generally "stop what you are doing to me...no, really. stop it. stop it now. here's what you want me to say..."
you would have thought that the debacle the french experienced and in some ways are still experiencing in algeria would have been enough...
you would have thought that any number of instances of this circular relation between torture and "information" gathered would have ruled out its use.
but then again, you also would have thought that basic ethics would have had the same effect.
apparently, any relation to the past as it might bear on the present, and any relation to ethics as they might limit actions are all out the fucking window when a neo-fascist regime understands that heimat to be threatened by a Contaminant....
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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