Prosecuting Torture Or Growing Gardens? (Carolyn Baker)

  April 27, 2009 (CarolynBaker.net) -- As most readers of my writings know, I don't concern myself with what the two ambiguously separate wings of America's one political party are up to. I have more important things to do like preparing personally and with my community for the collapse of empire.

  This is not to say that I condone torture or feel numb when thinking about it. Yet, while some may question what could be more important than prosecuting torture, the current dither on this issue leaves me feeling bewildered, very much like a child growing up in an abusive family. The child has witnessed and been the victim of torture-physical, emotional, or spiritual and suspects but has not really experienced that, in some families, torture does not exist. However, he has come to assume that in most families various forms of torture come with the territory of being born and growing up.

  In such a family there may be an uncle, we'll call him Dick, who loudly proclaims that torture is highly successful in keeping the family safe from enemies. One sibling, we'll call him Georgie, agrees with Uncle Dick and believes that the fastest way to fame and fortune is to carry out Uncle Dick's wishes. Another sibling, we'll call her Conde, adamantly asserts that her family does not torture but goes about ordering torture and expecting everyone else in the family to do the same. Also, in this family there might be a father, we'll call him Poppy, who has been involved all his life with a governmental agency that specializes in torture, so consequently, he's quite pleased that Georgie and Uncle Dick did such a fine job of keeping the nation "safe" by way of torture for eight years.

  What is more, all of these family members, we'll call them "the cowboys" of new wealth who exult a blatantly bullying approach to torture, differ greatly in their style from an earlier, more sophisticated, East Coast wing of the family, issuing from dynasties of longer duration whom we might call the "the tycoons." The latter do not like to talk about torture at all and certainly attempt to avoid practicing it blatantly. This branch of the family tree prefers to utilize philanthropy and quiet, steady methods of privatization over torture, as they silently subsume endless populations and infrastructures. They came into their own following the Civil War and ascended to primacy through the petroleum, rail, and banking industries of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. It should be noted, however, that both branches of the family tree are like warring gangs who seem to take turns in their leadership of the family from time to time, ostensibly altering its course, yet achieving similar results.

  Currently, the tycoons have control of the family and younger sibling, Barky, is in charge. He doesn't want to get "bogged down" in prosecuting cowboy tactics because his job is to serve the tycoons; however, some of the folks from his own political party who don't understand the cowboy/tycoon power struggle, we'll call them Child Protective Services (CPS), want to permanently disable the opposite party, as if somehow, this would eradicate torture in the family forever.

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