The Death of Humanity: A Response to Michael Levin’s Article,

1266 Words3 Pages

In his essay “The Case for Torture” Michael Levin makes the argument that although torture is often thought of as barbaric and a primitive way of information extraction in today’s modern world, it is however in actuality a viable means of preventing terrorist attacks and should be used as such. Levin acknowledges that using torture as a means of interrogation is probably unconstitutional however that the lives of millions should outweigh the constitutional morality of the issue. He goes on to state that although he does not condone the use of torture as a means of punishment he does however consider it a logical solution to drawing terrorist plots out. I disagree with Levin because it would be unjust to subject prisoners to torture based on the thought process that they might have information about terrorist plots. If in today’s modern world, we as the United States of America where to sink to such primitive methods of interrogation we would be putting the very foundation of democracy at risk. Levin himself has always been known for his extremist opinions and is no stranger to controversy, Levin’s strongly based options on controversial subjects has left him with a reputation for stirring the pot, other than his essay “The Case For Torture” Levin has published many controversial articles such as “In Defense of Scrooge”“Why Race Matters: Race Differences and What They Mean” and “Feminism and Freedom” as well as many others.Although his courage for daring to write so strongly on taboo topics such as homosexuality, feminism and torcher must be admired. Many of his arguments seem almost reminiscent of the delusional way of reasoning that the famous psychologist Sigmund Freud employed. Often times with almost no true facts to back up ... ... middle of paper ... ...m or against it one thing that cannot be denied is that as human beings we are flawed individuals from the start. Furthermore no matter what kinds of procedures are put in place to help prevent the innocent individuals from being subjected to torture, if it were to become a reality there would undoubtedly be innocent victims. Therefore I think the real question is whether the health and safety of those innocent individuals that are wrongly accused should be sacrificed in order to obtain possible information from a suspected terrorist? Works Cited Levin, Michael, “The Case for Torture” The Norton Reader.13th ed. EDS. Linda Peterson, et.al. New York: Norton, 2012. Pg 647. Print Hersh, Seymour M. "Torture at Abu Ghraib." The New Yorker. Cond é Nast, 10 May 2004. Web. 20 Feb. 2014. "Michael Levin." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 17 Feb. 2014. Web. 22 Feb. 2014.

Open Document