Tuesday, June 01, 2004
Porn Made Them Do It
Frank Rich wrote a MUST READ article appearing in this Saturday's New York Times addressing the most recent outlandish claims made by some of the "moral authorities" on the political right that the prisoner abuse scandal in Abu Ghraib can be blamed on the cultural depravity in America as currently evidenced by the porn industry, and no less culpable pop icons such as Janet Jackson, Britney Spears, Howard Stern and, last but not least, MTV.
Robert Knight, of the Culture and Family Institute, called the Abu Ghraib scandal "the 'Perfect Storm' of American cultural depravity, in which porn, especially gay porn, gave soldiers 'the idea to engage in sadomasochistic activity and to videotape it in voyeuristic fashion.' (His chosen prophylactics to avert future Abu Ghraibs include abolishing sex education, outlawing same-sex marriage and banishing Howard Stern.)"
"The vice president of the Heritage Foundation, Rebecca Hagelin, found a link between the prison scandal and how 'our country permits Hollywood to put almost anything in a movie and still call it PG-13.'"
As Rich points out, though, explaining this scandal by blaming the roots of this behavior on the current cultural decline in America does not hold up to the light of historical analysis. "History has always had a fault line, running from slavery to Wounded Knee to My Lai. (Read accounts of Andersonville, the Confederate-run Civil War prison at which some 13,000 died, for literal echoes of some of Abu Ghraib's inhumanity.)"
And further, "the photographs from Abu Ghraib themselves have a nearly exact historical antecedent in those touristy snapshots of shameless Americans posing underneath the victims of lynchings for decades after the Civil War. The horrific photos were sent around as postcards in the same insouciant spirit that moved Abu Ghraib guards to e-mail their torture pictures or turn them into screensavers — even though the reigning mass-culture pin-ups of the time were Mary Pickford and Shirley Temple rather than Janet Jackson or Britney Spears."
Robert Knight, of the Culture and Family Institute, called the Abu Ghraib scandal "the 'Perfect Storm' of American cultural depravity, in which porn, especially gay porn, gave soldiers 'the idea to engage in sadomasochistic activity and to videotape it in voyeuristic fashion.' (His chosen prophylactics to avert future Abu Ghraibs include abolishing sex education, outlawing same-sex marriage and banishing Howard Stern.)"
"The vice president of the Heritage Foundation, Rebecca Hagelin, found a link between the prison scandal and how 'our country permits Hollywood to put almost anything in a movie and still call it PG-13.'"
As Rich points out, though, explaining this scandal by blaming the roots of this behavior on the current cultural decline in America does not hold up to the light of historical analysis. "History has always had a fault line, running from slavery to Wounded Knee to My Lai. (Read accounts of Andersonville, the Confederate-run Civil War prison at which some 13,000 died, for literal echoes of some of Abu Ghraib's inhumanity.)"
And further, "the photographs from Abu Ghraib themselves have a nearly exact historical antecedent in those touristy snapshots of shameless Americans posing underneath the victims of lynchings for decades after the Civil War. The horrific photos were sent around as postcards in the same insouciant spirit that moved Abu Ghraib guards to e-mail their torture pictures or turn them into screensavers — even though the reigning mass-culture pin-ups of the time were Mary Pickford and Shirley Temple rather than Janet Jackson or Britney Spears."
