Stranger than Fiction: Does 24 Inspire Real Life Torture?

American Thinker ^ | 10 Feb 07 | Rick Moran

[rellimpank]

I have called Jack Bauer a thug, someone who would be in jail if he weren't out saving the country every week. And yet the fact that Jack seems to be remarkably untroubled by the methods he uses to battle the terrorists has always been one of his more attractive attributes. We want the kind of certitude exhibited by Jack. We long for it. We crave it. A black and white world where we don't have to wrestle with our consciences about what to do with real terrorists and where the choices made by our government to protect us would meet with universal approval is something most Americans would give their right arm for. This, more than anything else, helps explain the popularity of the show.

[Thrownatbirth]

We don't have time! People will die!

[somemoreequalthanothers]

A black and white world where we don't have to wrestle with our consciences about what to do with real terrorists

Nobody has to "wrestle" with this other than liberal do-good kumbaya donkeys.

[InvisibleChurch]

Does 24 Inspire Real Life Torture?

what does the left say? don't they always say that their movies aren't real and don't have an effect on people .... ?

[mtnwmn]

The part about the show giving the terrorists ideas is ridiculous!I have yet to see Bauer cut off a head!

[SubMareener]

Rick Moron obviously hasn't seen 24 lately. The whole show is about wrestling with less than optimal choices. Jack Bauer even got to the point of not torturing a terrorist who had vital information. Luckily the "terrorist who wanted to be a statesman" didn't have the same hang-ups. Bauer even said he couldn't "do this anymore!" Then the tactical nuclear warhead went off in Los Angeles, and Jack got back into the swing of things.

[Sgt_Schultze]

Season 2

[Bommer]

Apparently you didn't see what he did to his brother! Personally this is all pussyfied crap! "Don't kill the poisonous snake, because that will encourage other poisonous snakes"

Jack Bauer does what the CIA dreams it could do, but "lawyers" won't let them. The difference between "law" and "Justice" is a 9mm bullet!

[wideminded]

I have never watched "24". I was asking a relative in his 20's what he liked about the show and he said that he liked watching Jack Bauer torture the terrorists. Should I be concerned about the mental health and/or character of this relative?

[Sherman Logan]

Lagouranis said to me, "People watch the shows, and then walk into the interrogation booths and do the same things they've just seen."

Let me just make sure I've got this straight.

Pornography and more mainstream fictional portrayals of sexual immorality have no impact on people's behavior, because it's "just a story," while fictional portral of torture immediately causes imitative behavior.

Makes perfect sense to me!

[Sherman Logan]

All the experts agreed that torture, even when used in the show's "ticking bomb" context, would never work.

Thousands of years of human history disagree. Torture works extremely well for getting certain types of information. That's the major reason it keeps being used.

[Sherman Logan]

Well, also because certain personality types enjoy it.

[aimhigh]

I'd ask a similar question - do all the crime and murder shows on CBS inspire murders and rapes?

[rellimpank]

--yep--you would expect political liberals to eschew TV ads, because by the same logic they don't do any good--

[Sherman Logan]

Good point. Every tme I watch CSI I feel a strong impulse to dismember my annoying next door neighbor. So far I've resisted, but there are new episodes coming up.

[VOA]

Jack Bauer bump

[altura]

You should be worried about your mental health and start watching the show.

You can buy DVD's of previous seasons -- all good.

I particularly liked Season 6.

[ishabibble]

Here is some real old-fashioned black and white:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1782501/posts

End of discussion. Next!