I am sure that many of you are aware of the latest allegations of prisoner abuse from Iraq. For those of you only vaguely aware we have this from the Nation:
"The website has become a stomach-churning showcase for the pornography of war -- close-up shots of Iraqi insurgents and civilians with heads blown off, or with intestines spilling from open wounds. Sometimes photographs of mangled body parts are displayed: Part of the game is for users to guess what appendage or organ is on display . .
A series of photos showing two men slumped over in a pickup truck, with nothing visible above their shoulders except a red mass of brain matter and bone, is described as "an Iraqi driver and passenger that tried to run a checkpoint during the first part of OIF." The post goes on to say that "the bad thing about shooting them is that we have to clean it up." Another post, labeled "dead shopkeeper in Iraq," does not explain how the subject of the photo ended up with a large bullet hole in his back but offers the quip "I guess he had some unsatisfied customers."
The Nation
The Porn of War
September 22, 2005
I am an artist. During the mid-90's as films like Pulp Fiction and books like Natural Born Killers became not only popular but "hip" I found myself repulsed and therefor marginalized by this opinion. I don't advocate censorship but I do hold out the hope that the human spirit and it's concoment inspirations can aspire to a notion of beauty, no matter how subjective that idea. The steady erosion of sensitivity towards violence that has become ingrained in popular culture is a sad indictment of the state of our country. I believe that the purveyors of this sick esthetic (read Terrantino) play a mighty role in contributing to the unthinkable horror that gives rise to a web site like that discribed by the Nation. As I said, I dont believe that censorship is the answer. Instead perhaps we can demand of ourselves a critcal facility that is able to discern the motivations and effects of works of art that exploit violence and equate the act of murder with the act of eating a hamburger. And may we have the courage to decry the work of said "hipsters" if we percieve the now common exploitation and objectification of violence. Perhaps its just possible that we can demand more of ourselves and of our society and render this once hip trend to the trash heap of sad embarrassments.
I recommend the inimitable Billmon's latest two posts for more on this matter. billmon.org