The world is in desperate need of an in-your-face museum dedicated to torture. We benefit so handsomely from it, why not put it front and center for the whole world to see? This museum should be cylindrical, with the different degrees of torture arranged in concentric circles like Dante's Circles of Hell. Upon entering this place, visitors would see displays of mild torture in the first Circle of Hell. Not only “see” but “hear” as well – for torture cannot be fully appreciated without (shall we say) sound effects.
If they've got the stomach for it, guests could enter the inner circles and proceed from viewing acts of torture abstractly rendered all the way to realistic, holographically-rendered sessions of increasing brutality. Maybe some "friendly" government that does our dirty work for us (say "extraordinary rendition") could be prevailed upon to furnish DVDs of actual torture sessions. Or why not go all the way and, in the innermost Circle of this Hell, show us actual torture sessions? Surely there must be some wretched criminals we could purchase from some 3rd world hellhole for whom no one would cry out for justice.
Maybe tourists could subject themselves to a waterboarding session or two or, after signing the appropriate waivers, something a bit more severe - just to see what it's like to wear those shoes. I could go on but dare not, since some poor soul out there might think this is a good idea. Neither such a museum nor terror itself can, under any stretch (bad pun), be considered a good idea.
If they've got the stomach for it, guests could enter the inner circles and proceed from viewing acts of torture abstractly rendered all the way to realistic, holographically-rendered sessions of increasing brutality. Maybe some "friendly" government that does our dirty work for us (say "extraordinary rendition") could be prevailed upon to furnish DVDs of actual torture sessions. Or why not go all the way and, in the innermost Circle of this Hell, show us actual torture sessions? Surely there must be some wretched criminals we could purchase from some 3rd world hellhole for whom no one would cry out for justice.
Maybe tourists could subject themselves to a waterboarding session or two or, after signing the appropriate waivers, something a bit more severe - just to see what it's like to wear those shoes. I could go on but dare not, since some poor soul out there might think this is a good idea. Neither such a museum nor terror itself can, under any stretch (bad pun), be considered a good idea.
Steven Searle for U.S. President in 2012
Founder of The Independent Contractors’ Party
“As your next president, I will abolish torture as engaged in by this country (and ban its export to others) – something Obama just couldn’t bring himself to do. Too bad, that would have been a noble legacy indeed.”
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