Newspapers around the planet did likewise, carrying front-page photographs of a noose being placed around Hussein's neck by masked Shia executioners. On the Fox network, the execution footage was broadcast almost as soon as it was available. (Strangely, Fox also offered up side-by-side photographs of Hussein -- one, a file photo marked "ALIVE." Another, showing the Iraqi's neck twisted at a right angle to his torso, described -- redundantly -- as "DEAD.")
Whenever death and violence take place in proximity to digital video recorders, these days, the results inevitably seep onto the Internet. It is unstoppable.
Police reporters are not unfamiliar with this dichotomy. When I was such a reporter at the Calgary Herald and the Ottawa Citizen, for example, the news desk would periodically field outraged calls from subscribers, angry about the publication of a photograph of a bloody car crash. But, whenever we were at the scenes of said car crashes, we would always observe the same phenomenon repeating itself: Every car -- every single one -- slowing down to take a good look at the carnage. Some would even pull over to the roadside to snap a photo or two, while Grandma and the kids cheerfully observed the proceedings.
Does violence possess its own charisma? Is it sick, or wrong, to be attracted to photographs of car crashes, or shadowy video footage of Saddam Hussein's neck being snapped by a hangman's noose? Perhaps; probably. But as police reporters know -- as the builders of Rome's Coliseum knew -- human beings have always been drawn to these images, just as surely as they are often repulsed by what they see when they get there. The Google Video and You Tube statistics don't lie.
If you are like me, and you watched all of the hanging of Saddam Hussein -- uneasy, but also unable to tear one's eyes away -- we share the same narrow moral ground. On the one hand, we are aware that violence does, usually, beget violence. But, on the other hand, we are not unhappy to see a notorious murderer finally receiving crude justice. And grateful that a record exists, however blurry, to prove to us that he did not escape his long overdue descent into Hell.
A year ago I would have bet he never would have been executed. The international law and human rights gang were determined to spin it out forever and had co-mingled the question of his fate with opposition to the war and discrediting the Iraqi government very effectively. When it happened, my reaction was huge relief for the Iraqis and a prayer of thanks that the world hadn’t completely lost any sense of what justice is. But traveling through the blogosphere and seeing so much squirming, moralizing, faux-tristesse and "Although he was certainly a bad man..." personal distancing from the issue, and so little care for the future political and even personal security of Iraqis, I couldn’t help but feel I was in the company of strict Victorians talking about sex and trying to banish or legislate away some of the darker or more ambiguous realities about the human condition. If the fallout from Victorian repression really is one of the causes of the postmodern de-linking of sex and morality with the consequent celebration of anything-goes in the name of freedom and choice, God help us when a new generation overthrows the violence-is-always-wrong ethos that now rules the Western zeitgeist
6 comments:
Nice post heading.
If you are like me...
No, Warren Kinsella, I am not like you. I watched none of the hanging, for there was no good reason for anyone to do so, outside of Iraqis and the press.
Like Oroborous, I am not like Mr. Kinsella.
Call me ghoulish, but I watched it. I will argue with you, Oro, that there is no good reason to watch it. It is a historic event, just like the JFK assassination.
I've viewed some of the other disturbing pics and video from Iraq as well, including one of the beheading videos. Not for thrills, but to witness the suffering of those people who are caught up in the war and those people who we sent to fight it. As a supporter of the war, I thought it important to help me better understand the reasons and consequences of my decision.
Sure, it's historic, but for me the reports of his death were enough. I didn't feel the need for personal visual confirmation.
Watching terrorists execute people in order to grok supporting the war is legitimate IMO, but again, for me it's unnecessary.
I watched it, not for personal improvement or mortification, just rubbernecking, sorry for the pun. Have gotten more upset from watching chickens being slaughtered.
It was shabbily done, but at least it was done by the Iraqis and after some semblence of a trial.
And anyway, it's done now and there's an end to it.
It would be wonderful if the new Iraqi government now abolished state executions, and drew a line under Saddam's regime properly. Unlikely though.
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