Torture presupposes, it requires, it craves the abrogation of our capacity to imagine others suffering, dehumanizing them so much that their pain is not our pain. It demands this of the torturer, placing the victim outside and beyond any form of compassion or empathy, but also demands of everyone else the same distancing, the same numbness.

Other Septembers, Many Americas: Selected Provocations, 1980-2004 (ed. Seven Stories Press, 2011) - ISBN: 9781609802806