taxi to the dark side

"Man torturing man is a fiend beyond description. You turn a corner in the dark and there he is. You congeal into a bundle of inanimate fear. You become the very soul of anesthesia. But there is no escaping him. It is your turn now..."

— Henry Miller

After watching the documentary feature, Taxi to the Dark Side, I felt really depressed. I can say this because I remember being on the verge of tears, covering my eyes with both hands, cursing to the darkness. A conflicted emotion came over me. It was a muddle of shock, confusion, and the psychological sore brought by the burning images that sent me on the edge of anger. It was the same kind of emotion whenever I am reminded of the Holocaust, the genocide in Rwanda, the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, or any acts of outrage against humanity.

I will not say much because I want anyone who’d read this entry to see this movie, dwell in every detail, and chew every word spoken. Dark and compelling, I think this is one of the most moving documentary films I’ve ever seen. Let’s just say I am a fan of 24 and Jack Bauer… and then I saw this. Not a fan anymore. Torturing people to save the country almost make sense when everybody’s buying it, right? Well, it’s bullshit. The movie made me realize how corrupting this thought could be and that it fosters hate in people. It opened my mind to a lot of things. I may have watched this film three years late, but I guess it’s better late than never. I know the former US President Bush is a shmuck, but the policies he was willing to push through in the name of national security, in the middle of war against terrorism, brought me into the conclusion that he’s much dumber than I thought he was. I mean twisting the Constitution to fool the Supreme Court? To define laws his own way to pull away from the premises of the Geneva Convention? And all these just to justify and legalize human torture? And for what? For useless unrealiable intels squeezed out from the prisoners of war!

I still couldn’t understand why it had come to this. It maybe because of the hate or paranoia inflicted by 9/11, but I think what Bush, Rumsfeld, and Cheney did was appalling and downright stupid. They were not only dismantling the moral foundation of the people, but they’re also attracting threats to the country as well—the direct opposite of what they’re trying to do. The ghastly images you will see could practically serve as propaganda posters against the State. I am not really into politics. I hate it actually, but when the abuse of power is involved in the cost of innocent lives, I just couldn’t help but get affected. I think everyone would; those people who still have a concrete sense of right and wrong and the willingness to win the struggle to do good.

I highly suggest that you watch this documentary film by Alex Gibney (Director of Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room). It won the Academy Award (2007) for Best Documentary Feature, so it must good, right?