Morals on High Ground

There's been this talk of torture lately. The release of the torture memos from the Bush administration has been the fuel for it, and I want to make sure that I put my two cents worth.

We have to, as all of us belonging to this planet, believe in universal human rights. One of these should be the right to be treated humanely, and to be treated as a fellow human being before we are enemies, foes, friends, and others. If we forget that, then we subdivide humanity, and that is no good. Then we start splitting people into groups ad infinitum.

Therefore, we have to hold at least some values as universal values. One of them has to be that we treat them as we would like to be treated. If you ask around, it will be clear that no one wants to be tortured. It is inhumane, is it illegal by international standards, and it is morally repulsive. No political justification suffices here. We have, as fellow humans, the moral obligation to treat others with respect. That is how we get respect. We teach our children that. We need to remind ourselves of that.

Torture is repulsive. It is inhumane. It is below morality. If we were to be a moral species, we cannot, simply cannot torture.