Reply #54: thanks - and it's that evil path of small steps that's so frightening

[TorchTheWitch]

because it's human nature. It may be unbelievable to think that we could go from torturing only selected enemies only in vital circumstances to torturing anyone within our own society for the most infantismal reason, but it's human nature to be lead one step at a time from here to there. We give ourselves reasons why that one step needs to be taken, and once there we give ourselves reasons for the next step, and the next, etc. until you suddenly arrive at the ugly end not even really understanding how you got there.

The state of our government is the same, and only now is the average person just beginning to wake up and wonder how in the world did we get to this. We did it one small step at a time, each step having reasons to be taken and went hardly noticed or not noticed at all or even cheerleaded. There are always a relatively small group of society that is smart enough and educated enough and aware enough to see early on where taking the first small steps evenually lead, but on the whole society is by human nature oblivious until they've been drawn down to the seamier depths.

There's a plethera of reasons to refrain from torturing in all circumstances aside from it being barbaric and repugnant - legal, moral, logistical, etc., but this is the one that I think is the most important and the most frightening especially considering it's the one usually completely overlooked.