Has Saddam Hussein made snuff films culturally acceptable?

Posted on January 2, 2007
| buzz-it! | Huff it!

As I tool around the ’net enjoying some great blogs I’ve been reading, I can’t help stumbling across the video of the hanging of Saddam Hussein.

I’ve been trying to understand my reaction, which is a kind of cringing, a little bit like not wanting to see the gory part in a horror movie, but without the fun.

The video shows the sordid nature of the Iraqi regime, and although it may be cheered in the White House, most others feel revulsion on watching it.

Could I watch the video if I were compelled to do so? I expect I could. I’ve made no pretensions about any feelings of good will toward the man. The one kind thing I’ve said is that he is human (however inhumane). I think on the one level I cringe because of that last hold on dignity he retained: his humanity, mostly in his case, having to do with his ability to suffer.

I think I cringe also for all the people willing to display and view the image. There will be an extreme minority of views of the video where folks directly affected by his cruelty will derive some healing effect from witnessing the end of Hussein.

There may be a significant group of viewers who find the mystery of death compelling enough to be willing to suffer witnessing it in order to gain some insight into the human condition. I think Hussein may be a bad choice for that exploration because of all the other emotions that necessarily attach.

I don’t know what motivates the rest of the views. I hope we are not all as cruel and callous as might be suggested. Is it that we become inured to common acts of violence in media and video games? Having used depictions of violence for thrills, how else do we continue to achieve the same excitement as the numbing effect of too much fake blood and gore begins to dull our gut reactions?

I cringe for the zeitgeist in which watching the death of a man, whatever his sins, is entertaining.