Blog Post # 9

I had a thought that applied so heavily to torture last week, but when Hiroshima came up, I had much the same opinion and thought process. The grotesque nature of unethical, torturous events, like Hiroshima, leave me feeling ashamed to be an American and it is that thought that makes me think that certain parties in unethical events bear a heavier weight in their actions.

Last class, we found ourselves debating whether the US was right to excuse these torturers and we abhorred the actions of the “bad blood” experiment. Many of those mutual feelings apply to Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

And much like last week, I feel like the point “war is hell. War permits more” could be made in the case of Hiroshima. I agree that war allows for certain warrants of action that would not normally occur in everyday life.

But I would like to bring to the front an example from popular culture today. I don’t know if you watch the Walking Dead (or read the comics) but one episode really reminded me about these torturous events. To put this in perspective, there are two groups. One group we’ll call righteous enthusiasts, the other survivors. Essentially both of these groups believe in a cause that they find just; they battle head to head – a member of the survivors is beaten and his leg severed for the righteous enthusiasts consumption. Now, the survivors spearhead a fantastic tactic which brings all of the enthusiasts into their dwelling and the survivors kill the enthusiasts. The thing that makes me stop and question is that the survivors had control of the enthusiasts. Yet this group- who (throughout the season) the audience has come to love and honor as the "good guys" the people who save others- beats the shit out of them to the point of their death. They kill them so viciously that the location for the scene had to be held in a fake church. I found this decision to be grotesque and excessive. I am left to question why I found such an atrocity so unethical. 

After reading about Hiroshima - I think why we find decisions like these, made in war or otherwise, so inhumane and unethical is because we think of the United States, or the survivors, as the good guys, the people who must do right. If they don't it seems to injure the situation more. Especially since the good parties are knowledgeable and should have known better. 

When the situation occurs that the party is evil, for example Mengele –his actions have already the assumption to be awful. His actions were notably wrong and thus his actions were unsurprisingly unethical. Evil doers do not hit the hearts of the audience (witnesses/people) nearly as much as the good doers,  those whom which the watchers associate themselves with more.