Thirty-First Drop: pain is the last resort...
I do not know who once said, "Brute force is the last resort of the incompetent." Nonetheless, with apologies to the author, the causing of pain is the last resort of the unintelligent.
Some say that it is the best and quickest way to obtain information from an enemy. But a main under duress will say anything, just to stop the pain. When asked for information he can't remember, he will fabricate it. When asked to betray his comrades, he will choose random plausible information. There is no magical truth serum, but torture is no substitute.
Some say that it is the great teacher. Animals learn by pain: touch the wasp, and it stings. Step on the snake, and it bites. These impulses become so rooted in us that generations later, we still fear wasps and snakes by sight alone. Spare the rod and spoil the child -- and so forth. But must we teach by forcing our subjects, trainees, students, and children to fear us? Fear merely makes the person obey until his authority isn't looking. It creates a cowering, bitter creature that is just waiting to bite back.
Pain will come in life -- we need not add to it. Those we love will one day perish. Comrades will betray us. Friends will leave us. Battles will be fought. Wars will be lost. Need we destroy each other so?
Even my own squadron has claimed I am idealistic. Perhaps so. But look at what happened to the great sadists of history. For the most recent war...Hitler killed himself after becoming the most hated name in recent history. Stalin is reviled in the world as a destroyer of his own people. Even the small killers, like Colonel Volgin, were struck down and left to rot in nameless graves. That is how the torturers are remembered.
...Pain is not useless. But I will not be the one to bring it upon others. I have seen too much of it to do so.
Some say that it is the best and quickest way to obtain information from an enemy. But a main under duress will say anything, just to stop the pain. When asked for information he can't remember, he will fabricate it. When asked to betray his comrades, he will choose random plausible information. There is no magical truth serum, but torture is no substitute.
Some say that it is the great teacher. Animals learn by pain: touch the wasp, and it stings. Step on the snake, and it bites. These impulses become so rooted in us that generations later, we still fear wasps and snakes by sight alone. Spare the rod and spoil the child -- and so forth. But must we teach by forcing our subjects, trainees, students, and children to fear us? Fear merely makes the person obey until his authority isn't looking. It creates a cowering, bitter creature that is just waiting to bite back.
Pain will come in life -- we need not add to it. Those we love will one day perish. Comrades will betray us. Friends will leave us. Battles will be fought. Wars will be lost. Need we destroy each other so?
Even my own squadron has claimed I am idealistic. Perhaps so. But look at what happened to the great sadists of history. For the most recent war...Hitler killed himself after becoming the most hated name in recent history. Stalin is reviled in the world as a destroyer of his own people. Even the small killers, like Colonel Volgin, were struck down and left to rot in nameless graves. That is how the torturers are remembered.
...Pain is not useless. But I will not be the one to bring it upon others. I have seen too much of it to do so.