First of all, sorry for the long gap between Parts I and II. The events leading to this diary may already be out of the news cycle but it is still relevant because of the underlying mechanisms of influencing the masses which are repeated again and again throughout history.
If you haven’t already, please read the first Part of this diary here before delving headfirst into part II. Thank you!
Now, where were we?
Oh yes, censoring art/entertainment because of real life tragedies.
Good thing “Game of Thrones” was off the air in the weeks of the latest three beheadings. People are beheaded on that show all the time, most famously the Sean Bean character Eddard Stark in the first season whose head ended up on a stick being shown to his daughter or the infamous Red Wedding. Would the general public really be offended if these episodes had premiered in the last four weeks? Would HBO have edited these scenes out? Luckily, we will never know.
Or what about the first “Highlander” movie from the 80s where beheadings were the central theme of the movie. Would the studio have pulled the film from the cinemas or delayed its release? Cutting the beheadings out of “Highlander” wouldn’t really have worked…
Or what about “The Walking Dead”? Admittedly, on that show mostly zombies are the ones who lose their heads and limbs but they had occasions where main human characters lost their heads. If I remember correctly, Hershel was quite alive when the evil governor cut his head off with Michonnes sword at the end of season 3. Would AMC have pulled that show if it were to be shown now? Would they have delayed it or edited it? Follow me beyond the orange thingy for the concluding part of my diary.
Censorship is never a good thing, no matter how well-intentioned the reasoning behind it may be.
People who watch Action/Fantasy/Horror/SF shows and movies know that violent stuff may be included.
People who do not want to see that should stay with romantic comedies (which in my opinion are in some cases much more outrageous, gross and inappropriate than the worst horror flick because they often depict a wrong perception of women (and men) which has a much bigger and worse impact on the psyche of society than the ghastliest fictional beheading or mutilation scene but elaborating on this tangent should be a topic for separate diary).
And most important of all, film and TV companies should never ever use the tragedy of the day as an excuse to cut stuff just because the squeamish incited masses could be outraged and offended about things they would otherwise ignore or tolerate.
And who incites, excites and enrages the masses? The mass news media with their frenzied reporting. While at least not showing the Daesh footage of the three beheadings in gruesome detail, they report on it and the political consequences of it 24/7 in a way one might think they lost their heads themselves or at least their minds.
And unfortunately this doesn’t only apply to US media, the Brits and the Germans are equally bad regarding this. Not only are the deaths of the victims used to drum up support for war, they are used to stoke fear in people.
Fear and the feeling of helplessness which leads to anger and the wish to strike back – Crowd psychology 101… and the people still fall for it, in 2014, despite of all our alleged progress.
Want an example of the hilariously stupid fearmongering (it is at least hilariously stupid for anyone whose rational thinking isn’t clouded by emotions like fear and impotent anger)? Here you go:
I will not let this president suggest to the American people we can outsource our security and this is not about our safety. ... This president needs to rise to the occasion before we all get killed back here at home.
Everyone by now must heard this freakingly stupid statement by Lindsey Graham (Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert both already made fun of it) that if we don’t act now Daesh will come to the US and kill us all. LOL!
Yeah, a few thousand crazy fundamentalists will somehow magically enter the US and kill 300 million people, right…
Don’t get me wrong: Daesh is a danger, but primarily in the region of the middle east and maybe if they kidnap people or can pull off terror attacks abroad a few more innocent people in other countries around the world may die because of them but they are far from the existential threat to the daily life on this world certain politicians and pundits want to paint them as.
But unfortunately not all politicians are so obviously over the top exaggerating as Lindsey Graham and a little more restrained in their rhetoric which means, and that is the sad part, enough people fall for this kind of talk and lend their support to unnecessary and long-term damaging policies.
All I ask of people is to use your brains (like other diarists have suggested), don’t let it be clouded by emotions, get a perspective!
What has really happened?
As tragic and sad as the three beheadings are for the victims and their loved ones it is not the world-shattering event the media and politicians want to make of it. The victims are neither martyrs nor anything else – they simply were unlucky and at the wrong place at the wrong time and what is more, as journalists and aid workers they were well aware of the dangers reporting from or working in these areas. I am on the same page as Bill Maher who recently said the following regarding the three victims (Go and read the whole transcript - it is well worth your time):
I feel bad about the journalists who were killed. And I admire greatly their courage to go to the most dangerous places in the world. But it was their choice. And when you choose to live among cut throats, you might get your throat cut.
Look at the statistics of how many journalists die every year in war zones around the world and weep:
71 in 2013.
It is even worse regarding aid workers. 155 died and 134 were kidnapped in 2013.
I suspect you haven’t even heard the names of most of them…
What makes these three cases so special?
Because their deaths were geared towards the media by Daesh?
Because they were Americans/Brits? Don’t any of you dare giving me this argument! Since my childhood which is over three decades ago I found it strange when newscasters reported about incidents like plane crashes or other things where multiple people died and they said: “Two Germans were among the victims.”
I always asked myself: What the hell?
Are Germans more important than the other people?
Why mention this explicitly?
And as I grew older I noticed that every nation does this and I still don’t get it.
The statement “X number of victims of the tragic event were (insert your nation here)!” for me always had the implication that the loss of these people was somehow worse or more important than the loss of the other people.
But it isn’t, or at least, it shouldn’t be.
But let’s be completely honest here: If the three people Daesh beheaded recently had been, I don’t know, Russians, Iranians, Syrians, neither the US media nor the pundits and politicians or the public would have given a shit about it.
But as they were American and British (the closest ally of the USA) it suddenly is the worst tragedy that ever happened.
Get a f***ing perspective, folks!
The statements of various leading politicians are ...interesting.
British Prime Minister David Cameron:
And now David [Haines]has been murdered in the most callous and brutal way imaginable by an organisation which is the embodiment of evil.
Excuse me? While beheading someone certainly isn’t the most sanitized and sterile way to kill someone it certainly is
not "
the most callous and brutal way imaginable."
Regarding the ways humanity has developed and practiced over the centuries to kill each other beheading not even comes close to the top ten most callous and brutal ways imaginable and especially the Brits should look in their own backyard as proof for this.
How about Boiling people to death?
In England a law of 1531 allowed poisoners to be boiled alive. In 1532 a cook called Richard Roose was boiled alive and in 1542 a woman called Margaret Davy was boiled alive. However the law was repealed in 1547.
Or how about
being drawn, disembowelled, quartered and burned?
To be hanged, drawn and quartered was from 1351 a statutory penalty in England for men convicted of high treason, although the ritual was first recorded during the reigns of King Henry III (1216–1272) and his successor, Edward I (1272–1307). Convicts were fastened to a hurdle, or wooden panel, and drawn by horse to the place of execution, where they were hanged (almost to the point of death), emasculated, disembowelled, beheaded and quartered (chopped into four pieces). Their remains were often displayed in prominent places across the country, such as London Bridge. For reasons of public decency, women convicted of high treason were instead burned at the stake.
Boiling people alive or disembowelling them is much more callous and brutal as a clean beheading if done correctly. And don't come with arguments like "those were the middle ages" or "those victims were guilty of something while the Daesh-victims were innocent".
To the first "argument" I just like to point out that 1) some of these methods are still used in the current millennium by US/GB-allies... and 2) the Daesh extremists are in the same phase Christianity was in the Middle Ages therefore it shouldn't be shocking, disconcerting or surprising that they use the same methods. Christianity also knows a thing or two about how to kill non-believers throughout history...
Regarding the second argument: Do I really have to point to the inquisition, witch trials and so on? Religious fanatics have always killed innocents and oftentimes within the scope of their valid laws...
And Americans should shut up as well regarding "barbaric" killings. One just has to take a look at the problems they recently had killing their death row inmates in Arizona.
I don’t know but in comparison to the agonizing death throes this guy had to endure I imagine he would have preferred a clean quick decapitation…
Admittedly, a beheading can also be botched and become quite messy but it still would have been a lot faster than the two hours this guy had to go through.
Don’t get me wrong: I have neither compassion for a murderer nor am I an advocate of beheading even if the last sentences may have come across as such.
On the contrary: I am against killing in any form, but I want you to get a perspective and look at the subject from a different point of view than the general immediate emotional gut reaction of “Oh no, in today’s world that’s unthinkably barbaric and inhumane what Daesh has done!” when it actually isn’t. Far from it.
People (including children) are beheaded on this planet all the time, right now and few of the people outraged by the three beheadings covered by the media bat an eye or care in any way, shape or form about this. Saudi Arabia even kills people lawfully at an alarming rate by beheading them, while in various African countries beheadings also occur on a regularly basis.
Beheading as a method to kill other humans is deeply ingrained in the history of humankind (or human-not-so-kind as it were…).
I promised you a short history of beheading in human culture and here you go:
As soon as humanity had developed sharp weapons beheading became an acceptable and common way for humans to kill each other.
Even in the bible chopping off heads was a common occurrence (remember John the Baptist?) and the same goes for other mainstream religious writings.
Everyone knows about the beheadings the French made with the guillotine, just google French revolution.
And if you think those were times long in the past and human-not-so-kind has moved on from those methods just read the Wikipedia article about the guillotine (including source material) to see that as recently as 1977 the last person was officially legally executed by guillotine in France and that even the Germans used the guillotine in WW II and the Stasi in East Germany, too.
Research for yourself, I’m not your history teacher, I just try to point you in the relevant direction.
Beheadings always were a crowd puller, a spectacle drawing the masses to the execution place like sports events do today.
To learn why this was the case, read Elias Canetti’s book about crowd psychology “Crowds and Power”.
It was more than just plain sensationalism, it had an almost cathartic effect on the spectators.
And I bet if in a parallel universe the US got Bin Laden alive and then had organized a beheading of him at, say, Ground Zero, those people now whining the loudest about "the most callous and brutal methods" of Daesh would have been the first in line to get the best seats…
But I digress…
In Germany we even have beheadings in our fairy tales we tell children (Brothers Grimm among others) and the well-known legend of Pirate Captain Klaus Störtebeker who according to legend was promised that all those of his comrades he could still go past after being decapitated were to be spared the execution.
He supposedly went past eleven people of his crew after losing his head but the judge did not keep his promise.
The Störtebeker legend has spawned an annual festival which is one of our most successful open air theatre events.
There are countless other examples of beheadings being a big part of human culture past, present and future which you can easily find for yourself if you are interested.
All I wanted to show is that beheadings are neither uncommon nor a thing of the past and still practiced around the globe.
Just because our perceived urbane and sophisticated Western civilization does not want to see and acknowledge the things happening beyond their comfort zone doesn’t make them less real or even uncommon.
Western society these days is well-trained in looking the other way regarding uncomfortable topics even in their own countries much more so regarding things happening in other parts of the world.
Dealing with death as such still is sort of a taboo subject in our society with its “Wanting to be young, beautiful and living forever”-mentality as advertised by our media and corporations (another topic for another diary) and when harsh reality intrudes in our precious protected lives with horrible images, words and actions we naturally become upset, angry and outraged, even fearful.
But this is the wrong reaction on many levels, though understandable. As usual it is the easy way out. Thinking, questioning, getting a perspective is hard and takes effort.
I hope I at least made you think a bit and the next time anyone says “Beheadings are the most callous and brutal method” you’ll shake your head and say “No, they aren’t…” and they certainly do not warrant censorship of entertainment media which was the starting point in part I of this diary.
Again I want to stress that I am NOT pro-beheading – I would prefer if nobody ever killed anybody – no matter the method.
But as we have to deal with the humanity we have and not the humanity we want it must be possible to openly discuss the merits and reputation of specific killing methods.
The current media/public/political hysteria of people playing with emotions is simply wrong and a skillfully orchestrated overreaction to a bad situation.
The floor is yours.
Steve
We are one world and one people. As long as humanity as such is unable to grasp this simple but true concept, there will be no lasting peace, prosperity or progress on this planet.