Journal Reading #2: The Wrong Note

Perusing the Frieze Online front page, I noticed a an image that seemed vaguely familiar. It showed the rear end of a blue jeaned man with a red handkerchief in his back pocket. Upon further research, I found it to be the album cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA." Under this was the caption, "How Western pop music is being used as ‘touchless torture’ by the American military." Piquing my interest, I proceeded to click on the link. The article went on to describe how the American military has recently developed a new tactic of torturing inmates without the use of physical force at such places as Guantanamo Bay, Iraqi andAfghani prisons, and CIA military interment camps around the world. The method involved playing American pop, rock, and heavy metal at loud volumes repeatedly, with the content of the music often being offensive and attempting to shock the victims into submission. A British Muslim by the name of Shafiq Rasul, detained for some two years, tells the story of being subjected to Eminem's "Kim," and blaring heavy metal for hours with strobe lights flashing. Another detainee, Haj Ali, the infamous man of Abu Graib forced to stand naked with a black bag over his head, was purported to have been subjected to an ear-splitting rendition of David Gray’s "Babylon." When it was played for him later upon his release, he tore the earphones from his head and started sobbing uncontrollably.

Songs such as Dope’s "Die Motherfucker Die," Deicide’s "Fuck Your God," Bruce Springsteen’s "Born in the USA," Rage Against the Machine’s "Bulls on Parade," the Bee Gees’ "Stayin’ Alive," and Barney the purple dinosaur’s "I Love You" have been played to intimidate and break US-held prisoners. In addition, the very intense Metallica ’s "Enter Sandman" and Drowning Pool’s "Bodies" have been played. These two bands and some right-wing politicians have laughed at the idea of music being torture. They lambaste the "liberals" for "pampering" the prisoners. The only kind of torture these politicians can appreciate is the physical. Yet I find this to be a huge mistake in the comprehension of what real torture is. The author goes on to make several points that I agree with wholeheartedly. Quoting Napolean , the author writes, "‘There are but two powers in the world: the sword and the mind. In the long run the sword is always beaten by the mind." The body may heal, scars may fade with time, but the mind can be broken and damaged, never returning to what it was before. This is why the psychological torture of detainees is just as damaging, if not more, than the physical. Torture being unacceptable non withstanding , many of the detainees subjected to this punishment are innocent. It may be hard to imagine, but music played at deafening volumes over and over can extremely detrimental effect. America has only dug itself deeper into the hole known as "evil" with this act, and it doesn't take a stretch of imagination to see where this country is headed.