Written by Andor Carnes   

In response to: “They Still Walk Among Us” - by John H. Sucke: RSN: 30 May 2016.
Thank you for the point of view.
Opinion:
The bitter truth is that it is a historical and present reality that "many still walk among us", and we tolerate them among us -all of whom have likely severely and egregiously -and many times irreparably, changed the lives of one-to-millions forever, through their society-tolerated, an in many cases lauded, greed, entitlement and egos. The horrifying statistic is that the prisoners, and those who torture them, in whatever prison, and in whatever form, are but a tiny percentage of the criminals who walk among us and whom we tolerate for the progress of society. Those criminals, silently praying upon and ruining others’ lives, are mostly us, and we roam free. That is the punitive truth in all societies’ of haves and have-nots. The other disheartening statistic is that out of those who should be punished for ruining others’ lives for their own gain and/or indifference, only a minuscule number are ever known, and infinitely less are prosecuted. This is a truth in human societies, fueled endlessly by the need to survive through indifference.

Tortured through predatory business practices, economics, politics or social injustices, is as inhumane as water-boarding and in most cases further reaching in its implications for permanent damage for all those bonded to the victim. We just tend to see war and terrorism as teasing the bad war-related atrocity practices to the surface for shame and evaluation infinitely more than we do for the terror and brutal pain visited upon, for instance, an average father or mother in our world, and indeed the world in general, who are simply trying to provide for their family, in the face of the entrenched practice that the privileged and powerful should be so. This is undeniably universal.

Torture, brutality and terrorizing on any level; violent, socio-economic, business or personal, should never be tolerated on virtually any level. Yet, debating the levels of its acceptance is a banal trait of man. Trace back any action that places one individual or group over another, with the power to oppress or to consciously or subconsciously ignore helping every other to better the lives of those one can influence, and one is witnessing gain buy one “on the certain backs of others”. It has always been so. Rationalize usury or ignorance of cause and effect, as one will, but there simply are no exceptions to gain by loss. Not caring or knowing who loses is why life, progress and happiness proceed so shortly.

Treating any prisoners, even in the face of the inhumanity of war and/or their brutal actions, is unfortunately fairly universally thought to be wrong for a healthy global society of man. Even more importantly, it is always inhumane and useless in the face of the damage condoning such behaviors fosters. Also, to the detriment of personal, local and world health, a world on the average truly believing that being humane at all levels is not enough to make it so. The survival instinct always wins, to the detriment of the less fortunate, because we miss that helping every other is actually the highest attribute for assured survival, individual and the common. This point of the paramount importance of helping every other is always lost in the din of self-importance. That fault is a trait of the human, social race of aggrandizement- exacerbated by the guttural of survival. Avoiding, or mitigating, this tendency for self-delusion of what makes life better for each and everyone, has actually never been an attribute of most of man.

Debate the pros and cons of any human action, as we should and must. However, in the name of leaving this planet a slight bit better than how we found our fellow man demands that we lift ourselves out of the obviously controversial and drop into a harder understanding of what drives us to look at virtually everyone but ourselves, as the cause of the plight of those seen and unseen victims of literally everything we do. Think of the certain blood of working souls who came before, countless lives struggling, all the tiny details in a life, every nail –every stitch, and in all that one’s possessions represent.

Then ask, “Why quibble over the clear horror of torturing any prisoner and of those who get away with such practices –directly or indirectly, when we do the same to our fellow man, at large, every second of every day?” Those who victimize truly “still walk among us”, and they are also still us. They are not our worst enemies but rather our tolerance of anything inhumane is the parent of our worst nightmares.

When we are fascinated and consumed with not tolerating the symptom of anything, a cure is rarely found. If we, each, remain the focus of our personal drives to make our own lives better, then along with those we believe to be worse off than ourselves, we will be unknowing victims.

Indifference to our widespread tolerance of societal torture is perhaps our worst, shared, and fundamentally damaging trait. Without that indifference, we might have a better chance to affect change and accountability for what harms us all through our fellow man’s treatment at our very hands. There is no need for a long reach to touch those who are the problem. They have always been us. Others just carry on the behavior that we, protecting or not, allow. Torture simply is, and always will be, just the pain at the surface of a thread of society, as there is an infinitely deeper world that allows any subtle or blatant nightmare at others’ hands to live.