Question:
treel…@my-deja.com wrote in article <8thv0g$vp…@nnrp1.deja.com>: > In article <8tgfrh$v0…@nnrp1.deja.com>, > Steve R. <sr…@vcn.bc.ca> wrote: > > What I’m learning, as I gather more info and take courses etc. is that > > I can’t believe how blessed we are in this portion of the world in > > terms of freedom, standard of living, etc. Just reading about the > > recent politics in Bosnia and also the nuclear weapons situation in > > India and Pakistan, makes me realize that other countries in the world > > don’t enjoy some of the things we take for granted. > When you see how some people in the world live, the problems of shyness > seem completely minor in comparison.
True. It does develop more appreciation of what we have here. But unfortunately, even experiencing how some people in the world live doesn’t eliminate the problems of shyness. T.S.
Response:
Hello Steve, (Steve) writes:
<body of post snipped …> >However, politics or no politics, if the issue is about pain, then this is >something we can all relate to, and the hope is that there is joy in
suffering. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ (Marty) writes:
I was able to relate to the post all the way up to the end. Sounds like your story could be the making of a saint 
. However, could you please elaborate on the last sentence ?I ask this because its seems to be somewhat of a dichotomy. I usually think of suffering being associated with pain and joy associated with pleasure. This would make the last statement in the post a hope that there is pleasure in pain. Or am i reading too much into it ? Best Regards, Marty ============================================ Pay attention to what works and do more of it … And also: Pay attention to what doesn’t work and stop doing it. –Nathaniel Branden ============================================
Response:
Hey, I’m really glad you’ve taken an interest in this area. I’ve been a member of Amnesty International for 10 years. I feel they aren’t politically aligned either – in fact, some of our current (conservative) government ministers are members (although personally I would like to see them booted out:-) They are a well intentioned organisation, IMO, and do a lot of good. Did you know their research arm in London is actually larger then the Human Rights Commission of the UN? And all funded by donations – no corporate or government funding. You could do a lot worse than to join them. You’ll also meet some interesting and like minded people, and work within your local community, if you join a local group. (This was a paid political announcement:-) On 28 Oct 2000 06:18:25 GMT, strue…@interchange.ubc.ca (Steve – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -Ruelle) wrote: >Go figure – well rest assured this post does have a ‘happy ending’ >In my international relations class, we have a wide choice of term paper >topics to write about, and the one I picked was to evaluate a human rights >abuse issue, and then discuss the origins of the problem, and ways to >address to problem. The human rights abuse, specifically, that I picked, >was torture. >I’m not so sure why I picked it – arguably torture is one of the darkest >forms of human suffering there is, perhaps next to genocide and ethnic >"cleansing". I think it’s so dark because torture deliberately involves >inflicting pain (physical or otherwise) on other human beings, and doing >so in a systematic, persistent, committed way, and a method that maximizes >the effectiveness. >Aside: One interesting thing to point out about evil acts such as this, >and evil in general – is that it takes principles that are essentially >*good* (persistence, committment, intelligence, decisiveness) and distorts >and twists them for evil ends. So isn’t evil then spoiled goodness? >Anyhow, as I was doing the research for the term paper, inevitably I came >upon some pretty gruesome stories from personal accounts of torture >victims – some of which almost made me throw up. I recall one story of a >person who was raped and then lowered into a pit full of decaying, >screaming bodies and rats crawling all over them. Then she was forced to >take a knife and kill someone else in the pit – she still recalled the >horrific smell and sight of blood after the event, and as a result >underwent psychological treatment for PTSD. >Gruesome stuff? You better believe it. This was one of many stories that >I read, all of which were published in mainstream political journals that >I found as a result of doing research on the net. >So, I had no problem finding an abundance of research material and an >outline for the term paper. But then I thought to myself why was I doing >this – that is devoting time to research a topic of such pain and >suffering. This isn’t exactly bedtime story reading. I also wondered why >I was able to hold myself together while doing the research and not freak >out, and discuss the topic rationally. Well, I have to admit, I did come >close to throwing up, but I did read all the stories >I then began to think about my own past, and the amount of pain that I >went through, particularly in high school, and started to draw some >parallels. Well, it’s certainly true that my own shyness, and probably >that of others, didn’t really involve a lot of *physical* pain per se – >but the suffering assosciated with shyness was certainly >serious. >It’s hard to describe, much less pin the issue of the pain of shyness >down, because it is maddeningly complex. How do you even begin to address >such an issue? For myself, the pain of shyness involved, among many other >things, 24/7 self-blame and hurt, internal anger, feeling despised that >’nobody understands’, feeling like being from another planet, frequent >crying, and dealing with hurtful humor by others. >The good news is that I took positive action to beging a process of >overcoming the shyness, and a lifelong course of personal growth and >learning, of which I am still on, and will undoubtedly keep going. It >wasn’t easy to do this, and the sledding was (and still is) tough. I >still struggle with a lot of issues, and I don’t expect to be reaching >perfection anytime soon. In fact, that’s the whole point – life is a >journey, not a destination. >However, in dealing with some of my own personal pain assosciated with >shyness, the result is that now, in tackling such a dark issue as human >torture – I feel much more confident in getting into the meat of the >issue, because in some indirect way, I’ve gone through a bit of it myself >(albeit not physical but there are parallels). >Also, and this is the ‘happy ending’ as it were – I feel, as a result of >going through suffering of my own – much more connected with other human >beings, and have a passionate desire to touch other people in their own >lives, and help others who are suffering. >On a broader political front, the organization ‘Amnesty Inernational’ >http://www.amnesty.org is starting to look extremely appealing to me – >they deal with campaigns worldwide (you can click a country with a mouse >that you want to read about, literally) one such campaign being a ‘Stamp >Out Torture’ campaign. For instance, if I go clickity click click with my >mousie towards the ‘Library’ section and select by country, I can get >reports for any country that I am interested in. Hmm … let’s go to >Iran. Click Click. <an article appears on the failures of Iranian >justice> Many of the torture crimes are committed in secrecy, because of >international law, as is interesting to note. >What is also interesting is that AI considers themselves not to be bound >by a particular ideology (i.e. it’s tempting to call them ‘liberal’ or >’left wing’ or ‘activist’ but this misses the point). That is, the focus >is on that human beings around the world are being subjected to inhumane >conditions, and that regardless of where we stand politically, something >needs to be done to help others out who are suffering. >For myself, my political views are not along the lines of ‘left wing >activist’ or ‘radical environmentalist’ or anything like that. I would >likely consider myself to closer to the corporate and professional side of >things, albeit I’m not right wing either! Trying to put a label on where >I stand politically is really difficult, so it makes sense to leave it as >is, and call it a developing perspective. >However, politics or no politics, if the issue is about pain, then this is >something we can all relate to, and the hope is that there is joy in >suffering.
Gra-gra I’m only human:)
Response:
On 28 Oct 2000 06:18:25 GMT, Steve Ruelle wrote: > For myself, my political views are not along the lines of ‘left wing > activist’ or ‘radical environmentalist’ or anything like that. I would > likely consider myself to closer to the corporate and professional side of > things, albeit I’m not right wing either! Trying to put a label on where > I stand politically is really difficult, so it makes sense to leave it as > is, and call it a developing perspective.
It’s interesting, trying to pinpoint yourself politically. I’m not sure it does much good for most everyday conversation — it tends to conceal the real issues. I’ve got myself tagged as a Socialist-Libertarian, which for most people probably sounds radical (although I don’t think it is) so I might do well keeping it to myself. :) That’s a fancy way of saying anti-hierarchy, the epitome of which is the co-op form of free enterprise. Plus on the human rights side of things, I’m very interested in humanitarian causes as you seem to be… Oh well, I was just trying to compare points of view since we’ve had a few political discussions here. For me, it seems I’m perpetually reconsidering my political stance, and really I think that’s a good thing. — headbeat
Response:
In article <MPG.14652462413026d9989…@news.psnw.com>, headbeat <ja…@jlu.bn3.comNOSPAM> wrote: > Oh well, I was just trying to compare points of view since we’ve > had a few political discussions here. For me, it seems I’m > perpetually reconsidering my political stance, and really I think > that’s a good thing.
It is – because it shows you’re adaptable to change and new ways of thinking. Otoh it wouldn’t be wise to flip-flop from one extreme to the other, however assembling and constructing a political stance (by weighing, reconsidering, assimilating, etc.) is is a positive sign. What I’m learning, as I gather more info and take courses etc. is that I can’t believe how blessed we are in this portion of the world in terms of freedom, standard of living, etc. Just reading about the recent politics in Bosnia and also the nuclear weapons situation in India and Pakistan, makes me realize that other countries in the world don’t enjoy some of the things we take for granted. Now I don’t think it’s selfish to enjoy, and take advantage of the standard of living that we have, i.e. in terms of opportunities to get involved and make contributions, search for a career, live a fulfiling life, etc. – but what I do think is selfish is to blot out, and not care about what is happening *elsewhere* in the world besides our cozy North American enclave. And to make the assumption that our culture and living standards and freedoms are indicative of what the rest of the world is likef is selfish – because research shows that not all countries enjoy what we take for granted. And I think that the knowledge of developing an international IQ acts as a springboard to get further involved in world issues, and to think of the freedoms and blessings we have as *responsibilities* to help those who are struggling – such as through peace building, economic development, de-mining (esimates say there are over 60 million land mines in the ground, throughout the world), environmental awareness, and travel – just to scratch the surface. Also, the most positive thing for myself that has come out of increasing knowledge on international politics issues, is that I feel more at peace with myself at home. Previously, I thought of getting involved in international work, or travelling to another part of the world would somehow magically "fix" my problems related to shyness and other issues – but that is obviously not true. Instead, I’m learning more that I can be happy in all kinds of environments and social systems including our own. And this, paradoxically, makes it even more exciting to consider the prospects of doing some sort of international travel. Now if I could only just get out of the procrastinating stage and actually *do* something about it …… Steve > — > headbeat
– "God pours contempt on nobles and disarms the mighty." – Job 12:21 Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Before you buy.
Response:
In article <8tgfrh$v0…@nnrp1.deja.com>, Steve R. <sr…@vcn.bc.ca> wrote: > What I’m learning, as I gather more info and take courses etc. is that > I can’t believe how blessed we are in this portion of the world in > terms of freedom, standard of living, etc. Just reading about the > recent politics in Bosnia and also the nuclear weapons situation in > India and Pakistan, makes me realize that other countries in the world > don’t enjoy some of the things we take for granted.
When you see how some people in the world live, the problems of shyness seem completely minor in comparison. > Now I don’t think it’s selfish to enjoy, and take advantage of the > standard of living that we have, i.e. in terms of opportunities to get > involved and make contributions, search for a career, live a fulfiling > life, etc. – but what I do think is selfish is to blot out, and not > care about what is happening *elsewhere* in the world besides our cozy > North American enclave. And to make the assumption that our culture > and living standards and freedoms are indicative of what the rest of > the world is likef is selfish – because research shows that not all > countries enjoy what we take for granted.
For purely selfish reasons, it’s good to pay attention to what is happening in the world. Seeing the difficulties that other peoples have to cope with helps you see appreciate the opportunities we have in the rich world. Secondly, if we do things to improve security for people of all countries, then it helps us by making the world safer. Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Before you buy.
Response:
On Sun, 29 Oct 2000 06:24:52 GMT, Steve R. wrote: > In article <MPG.14652462413026d9989…@news.psnw.com>, > headbeat <ja…@jlu.bn3.comNOSPAM> wrote: > > Oh well, I was just trying to compare points of view since we’ve > > had a few political discussions here. For me, it seems I’m > > perpetually reconsidering my political stance, and really I think > > that’s a good thing. > It is – because it shows you’re adaptable to change and new ways of > thinking. Otoh it wouldn’t be wise to flip-flop from one extreme to > the other, however assembling and constructing a political stance (by > weighing, reconsidering, assimilating, etc.) is is a positive sign.
Yeah, I still do my share of flip-flopping, but gradually I’m developing a core philosophy that I can be confident in advocating. It takes a *lot* of time for me though. > What I’m learning, as I gather more info and take courses etc. is that > I can’t believe how blessed we are in this portion of the world in > terms of freedom, standard of living, etc. Just reading about the > recent politics in Bosnia and also the nuclear weapons situation in > India and Pakistan, makes me realize that other countries in the world > don’t enjoy some of the things we take for granted.
Very true! > Now I don’t think it’s selfish to enjoy, and take advantage of the > standard of living that we have, i.e. in terms of opportunities to get > involved and make contributions, search for a career, live a fulfiling > life, etc.
I agree. It’s often a dilemma for me — because I have far more luxuries and opportunities than the average person in the world. In my opinion the best way to compensate for that is not to deny myself the opportunities, but rather to find ways to help those who don’t have such opportunities. > – but what I do think is selfish is to blot out, and not > care about what is happening *elsewhere* in the world besides our cozy > North American enclave. And to make the assumption that our culture > and living standards and freedoms are indicative of what the rest of > the world is likef is selfish – because research shows that not all > countries enjoy what we take for granted.
Yeah, I spent some time briefly in Lithuania (several years ago now, 1994, which was less than 3 years after their independence from the USSR). It gave me a perspective on what it’s like to live on the typical $250 per month for that country. That’s important to keep in mind when I gripe about *our* system in the USA. OTOH, it’s not all misery over there either — strong evidence that happiness isn’t inherently tied to money.* * Voluntary simplicity propaganda > And I think that the knowledge of developing an international IQ acts > as a springboard to get further involved in world issues, and to think > of the freedoms and blessings we have as *responsibilities* to help > those who are struggling – such as through peace building, economic > development, de-mining (esimates say there are over 60 million land > mines in the ground, throughout the world), environmental awareness, > and travel – just to scratch the surface.
I feel the same way. The prosperity we enjoy in Western countries gives us power. It’s good karma to use that to help others who need it most. > Also, the most positive thing for myself that has come out of > increasing knowledge on international politics issues, is that I feel > more at peace with myself at home. Previously, I thought of getting > involved in international work, or travelling to another part of the > world would somehow magically "fix" my problems related to shyness and > other issues – but that is obviously not true. Instead, I’m learning > more that I can be happy in all kinds of environments and social > systems including our own. And this, paradoxically, makes it even more > exciting to consider the prospects of doing some sort of international > travel.
No, it doesn’t really fix anything (except I’ve discovered I’m much less shy when travelling!). I don’t know… with an international focus, it’s basically a hobby, a way to be productive with your leisure time. It’s one way to combat my self-centered tendencies. There’s a lot of opportunities to make positive contributions to the world as well. > Now if I could only just get out of the procrastinating stage and > actually *do* something about it ……
Hmmm… I’m pretty sure I have you beat on the area of procrastination. I *really* need to work on that myself. *sigh* — headbeat
Response:
On Sat, 28 Oct 2000 13:46:05 GMT, Gra-gra wrote: > Hey, I’m really glad you’ve taken an interest in this area. I’ve been > a member of Amnesty International for 10 years. I feel they aren’t > politically aligned either – in fact, some of our current > (conservative) government ministers are members (although personally I > would like to see them booted out:-) > They are a well intentioned organisation, IMO, and do a lot of good. > Did you know their research arm in London is actually larger then the > Human Rights Commission of the UN? And all funded by donations – no > corporate or government funding. You could do a lot worse than to > join them. You’ll also meet some interesting and like minded people, > and work within your local community, if you join a local group. > (This was a paid political announcement:-)
Paid or not paid, what you’re advocating is very positive, IMHO. I will think about joining Amnesty International myself. — headbeat
Response:
Ha, ha, I didn’t discover the state of the world in a college class 
. No, I was always made to feel *guilty* about the state of the world. As a kid I was told: "Don’t cry – you have no right to cry many people in the world are worse off than you. Children are starving in …. Don’t cry – your wasting your tears." And then there were so many times I wondered if I was supposed to be such a lucky person why was I so unhappy? And my thoughts would chase thier tails around – driving me insane. Until I concluded that happiness was little possible and life largely futility. I was told: "Your a spoiled brat" (because I was raised as a kid of the American middle class) (how ironic that politicians like Al Gore and George Dubya now pander *shamelessly* to the middle class – when *I* was raised to think *we* were the lucky ones ). I was told: "We can’t spend so much money on clothes (they had the money) – we’re spoiling you" – but then I was riduculed mercilessly for my clothes by kids who i *know* came from at least a bit poorer backgrounds but whose parents somehow found the money for fashionable clothes.:-( Dont raise your kids with guilt trips!!! Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Before you buy.
Response:
In article <20001028065717.01747.00000…@nso-fz.aol.com>, mart…@aol.com (Martyxs) wrote: > (Marty) writes: > I was able to relate to the post all the way up to the end. Sounds like your > story could be the making of a saint .
Perhaps, but I don’t like to think of myself as ’saintly’ in any means. There are a lot of issues with me that I’m not proud of, and although it may not be apparent to others (my last gf even said ‘you don’t have an evil bone in your body’) there are faults, imperfections, and yes even a dark side that I need to grapple with. But I suppose that’s what being human is about However, could you please elaborate > on the last sentence ?I ask this because its seems to be somewhat of a > dichotomy. I usually think of suffering being associated with pain and joy > associated with pleasure. This would make the last statement in the post a hope > that there is pleasure in pain.
I could elaborate more, but I think the best bet is to direct you to Peter Kreeft’s book "Making Sense out of Suffering" or another good one is John Stackhouse’s book "Can God Be Trusted?". Both authors address the apparent dichotomy really well, imho. The paradox is reconciled by the idea of evil acts and pain as containing spoiled qualities of goodness. For instance, take the example of landmines (extracting some of the information from last friday’s lecture). Landmines come in many forms and shapes, but the primary purpose of anti-personnel landmines are to *maim, not to kill*. Btw these landmines (not anti-tank mines) are the subject of the International Treaty to Ban Landmines which has recently gone into effect. Thus, the mines are purposely designed so that they sustain maximum damage to the victim, particularly with requiring leg amputations, through a variety of methods, but they are not designed to kill. The mines are also strategically deployed, and in some countries to inflict civilian casualties as well as military. They are also made more persistent by installing trip-wire devices as well as some are designed to detonate if removed from the ground, even by skilled de-miners (i.e. they blow up if tilted at so little as a 10 degree angle). So, those who design the mines have several purposes in mind: to ensure maximum effectivenes, to strategically design to maim not kill, and to make it difficult to remove the mines. Analyzing these aspects of design, it is curious to note that elements of persistence, determination, and committment are employed by those who design and place the mines. Although employed for the purposes of evil, in this case, persistence, determination, and committment are inherently good qualities, right? Steve Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Before you buy.
Response:
In article <8ticu1$ad…@nnrp1.deja.com>, Steve R. <sr…@vcn.bc.ca> wrote: – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -> In article <20001028065717.01747.00000…@nso-fz.aol.com>, > mart…@aol.com (Martyxs) wrote: > > (Marty) writes: > > I was able to relate to the post all the way up to the end. Sounds > like your > > story could be the making of a saint . > Perhaps, but I don’t like to think of myself as ’saintly’ in any means. > There are a lot of issues with me that I’m not proud of, and although it > may not be apparent to others (my last gf even said ‘you don’t have an > evil bone in your body’) there are faults, imperfections, and yes even a > dark side that I need to grapple with. > But I suppose that’s what being human is about > However, could you please > elaborate > > on the last sentence ?I ask this because its seems to be somewhat of a > > dichotomy. I usually think of suffering being associated with pain and > joy > > associated with pleasure. This would make the last statement in the > post a hope > > that there is pleasure in pain. > I could elaborate more, but I think the best bet is to direct you to > Peter Kreeft’s book "Making Sense out of Suffering" or another good one > is John Stackhouse’s book "Can God Be Trusted?". Both authors address > the apparent dichotomy really well, imho. > The paradox is reconciled by the idea of evil acts and pain as > containing spoiled qualities of goodness. > For instance, take the example of landmines (extracting some of the > information from last friday’s lecture). Landmines come in many forms > and shapes, but the primary purpose of anti-personnel landmines are to > *maim, not to kill*. Btw these landmines (not anti-tank mines) are the > subject of the International Treaty to Ban Landmines which has recently > gone into effect. > Thus, the mines are purposely designed so that they sustain maximum > damage to the victim, particularly with requiring leg amputations, > through a variety of methods, but they are not designed to kill. The > mines are also strategically deployed, and in some countries to inflict > civilian casualties as well as military. They are also made more > persistent by installing trip-wire devices as well as some are designed > to detonate if removed from the ground, even by skilled de-miners (i.e. > they blow up if tilted at so little as a 10 degree angle). > So, those who design the mines have several purposes in mind: to ensure > maximum effectivenes, to strategically design to maim not kill, and to > make it difficult to remove the mines. > Analyzing these aspects of design, it is curious to note that elements > of persistence, determination, and committment are employed by those who > design and place the mines. Although employed for the purposes of evil, > in this case, persistence, determination, and committment are inherently > good qualities, right?
Well, I think your examples of the use to which persistence, determination, and committment can be put should give reason to consider whether they actually are "inherently good qualities". — Dene Bebbington Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Before you buy.
Response:
Go figure – well rest assured this post does have a ‘happy ending’ In my international relations class, we have a wide choice of term paper topics to write about, and the one I picked was to evaluate a human rights abuse issue, and then discuss the origins of the problem, and ways to address to problem. The human rights abuse, specifically, that I picked, was torture. I’m not so sure why I picked it – arguably torture is one of the darkest forms of human suffering there is, perhaps next to genocide and ethnic "cleansing". I think it’s so dark because torture deliberately involves inflicting pain (physical or otherwise) on other human beings, and doing so in a systematic, persistent, committed way, and a method that maximizes the effectiveness. Aside: One interesting thing to point out about evil acts such as this, and evil in general – is that it takes principles that are essentially *good* (persistence, committment, intelligence, decisiveness) and distorts and twists them for evil ends. So isn’t evil then spoiled goodness? Anyhow, as I was doing the research for the term paper, inevitably I came upon some pretty gruesome stories from personal accounts of torture victims – some of which almost made me throw up. I recall one story of a person who was raped and then lowered into a pit full of decaying, screaming bodies and rats crawling all over them. Then she was forced to take a knife and kill someone else in the pit – she still recalled the horrific smell and sight of blood after the event, and as a result underwent psychological treatment for PTSD. Gruesome stuff? You better believe it. This was one of many stories that I read, all of which were published in mainstream political journals that I found as a result of doing research on the net. So, I had no problem finding an abundance of research material and an outline for the term paper. But then I thought to myself why was I doing this – that is devoting time to research a topic of such pain and suffering. This isn’t exactly bedtime story reading. I also wondered why I was able to hold myself together while doing the research and not freak out, and discuss the topic rationally. Well, I have to admit, I did come close to throwing up, but I did read all the stories I then began to think about my own past, and the amount of pain that I went through, particularly in high school, and started to draw some parallels. Well, it’s certainly true that my own shyness, and probably that of others, didn’t really involve a lot of *physical* pain per se – but the suffering assosciated with shyness was certainly serious. It’s hard to describe, much less pin the issue of the pain of shyness down, because it is maddeningly complex. How do you even begin to address such an issue? For myself, the pain of shyness involved, among many other things, 24/7 self-blame and hurt, internal anger, feeling despised that ‘nobody understands’, feeling like being from another planet, frequent crying, and dealing with hurtful humor by others. The good news is that I took positive action to beging a process of overcoming the shyness, and a lifelong course of personal growth and learning, of which I am still on, and will undoubtedly keep going. It wasn’t easy to do this, and the sledding was (and still is) tough. I still struggle with a lot of issues, and I don’t expect to be reaching perfection anytime soon. In fact, that’s the whole point – life is a journey, not a destination. However, in dealing with some of my own personal pain assosciated with shyness, the result is that now, in tackling such a dark issue as human torture – I feel much more confident in getting into the meat of the issue, because in some indirect way, I’ve gone through a bit of it myself (albeit not physical but there are parallels). Also, and this is the ‘happy ending’ as it were – I feel, as a result of going through suffering of my own – much more connected with other human beings, and have a passionate desire to touch other people in their own lives, and help others who are suffering. On a broader political front, the organization ‘Amnesty Inernational’ http://www.amnesty.org is starting to look extremely appealing to me – they deal with campaigns worldwide (you can click a country with a mouse that you want to read about, literally) one such campaign being a ‘Stamp Out Torture’ campaign. For instance, if I go clickity click click with my mousie towards the ‘Library’ section and select by country, I can get reports for any country that I am interested in. Hmm … let’s go to Iran. Click Click. <an article appears on the failures of Iranian justice> Many of the torture crimes are committed in secrecy, because of international law, as is interesting to note. What is also interesting is that AI considers themselves not to be bound by a particular ideology (i.e. it’s tempting to call them ‘liberal’ or ‘left wing’ or ‘activist’ but this misses the point). That is, the focus is on that human beings around the world are being subjected to inhumane conditions, and that regardless of where we stand politically, something needs to be done to help others out who are suffering. For myself, my political views are not along the lines of ‘left wing activist’ or ‘radical environmentalist’ or anything like that. I would likely consider myself to closer to the corporate and professional side of things, albeit I’m not right wing either! Trying to put a label on where I stand politically is really difficult, so it makes sense to leave it as is, and call it a developing perspective. However, politics or no politics, if the issue is about pain, then this is something we can all relate to, and the hope is that there is joy in suffering.
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