My Guilty Pleasure

My name is Jordan, and I watch 24. That is not a controversial statement in and of itself, as the television program in question is a massive hit. However, I enjoy this show the way a health-food nut enjoys Domino's Pizza, the way a DEA agent smokes crack.

I do not condone torture. On the other hand, 24 is torture's biggest cheerleader. Every episode this season has featured at least one act of torture, either to coerce action or to elicit information. Each time, lip service is perfunctorily paid towards the immorality, the dirtiness, the just-plain-wrongness of such a tactic, but, in the end, Jack Bauer will beat, jab, or poison his way towards what he needs to know.

The popularity of this show is well-earned: the writing is stellar and the acting is believable. The plots are intense and unrelenting, a weekly trip to an adrenalized amusement park. The only problem is the at the underlying values touted by the characters in this show parrot the black-and-white worldview being pitched by the Bush Administration in their defense of the so-called War on Terror. Of course, most people would root for Jack Bauer, as a fictional Los Angeles is about to explode, if he has to torture a few terrorists in order to save the day. Because they're bad guys, right?

Trouble is, real life is not so simple. Real torture victims were not conjured up by a screenwriter, but pulled from the street, by the same folks who tried to sell you on the Iraq-al Quaeda connection. With that in mind, how many fingernails should be pulled before you believe the cries of "I don't know what you're talking about!"?

Don't get me wrong, I don't believe that filmmaking (for the big or small screens) should concern itself with public service announcements, or that entertainment should carry the burden of education. That's the job of a parent or guardian, or, in the case of an adult, a mature sense of critical thinking. My only concern is that this particular fiction gels all to well with the fiction being force-fed to the world by a government knee-deep in illegal prison camps, extraordinary renditions, and illegal invasions. That 24 airs on Fox only completes the tableau, Fox being Bush's biggest network cheerleader.

I am not suggesting a conspiracy between Fox (which broadcasts but does not produce the series) and the government, merely that the viewing public needs to be keenly aware that the television series is couching the argument in the same terms as the government, or, rather, that the government is trying to tell the public that life is a television show.

The only problem with all this is that torture, in real life, does not work. Put yourself in the victim's shackles for a moment: when someone's holding a cordless drill to your kneecap, your motivation is not to tell the drill-holder what he needs to know, but to tell the drill-holder whatever you think will make him put down the drill. Your accomplices? Sure, they're... uh, lemme see, your neighbors. The plot? No problem, we're gonna blow up... the CN Tower... with... explosives... hidden in, oh, I dunno, Beanie Babies. Whatever you think they'll believe.

Proponents of torture, it would seem, do not grasp this distinction. Proponents of torture have bought into the very fiction proposed by 24. Therein lies the danger: real-world problems cannot be solved by televion-show means. 

So what works? I don't have a precise answer, but I can tell you this: that guy you're stabbing in the knee will lie to you. And when you're done, that guy doesn't just walk off-camera. You have just created a new enemy.

It's okay to watch and enjoy a work of fiction. However, just like your folks told you as a kid, remember that television is most definitely not real life.