The Sound of Pain:
Perhaps you heard the fabulous segment on On the Media this week about the music used to harass and interrogate combat detainees at places like Guantanamo Bay. If not, please do. It’s a real eye (ear?) opener.
The part that hit me hardest on this assessment of "sonic suffering" was the musical choices military officers made as they seemed as boneheaded as the logic behind torture as appropriate foreign policy. Neil Diamond’s "America", Bruce Springsteen’s "Born in the USA" and Eminem’s "White America" are all on the sonic harassment playlist ostensibly because repeating the word America to a Muslim detainee the height of offensive. Never mind that "America" is a paean to immigration, "Born in the USA" an excoriation of oversees war and "White America" a bludgeon aimed at racism. Rage Against the Machine, a band composed of outspoken liberal activists wrote the state department letters to ask them to stop using their music as a weapon against prisoners of war.
All this tells me is that the US Military is either a) tone deaf or b) never thought these choices would be subjected to public scrutiny. A) is sad but laughable. B) scares me to death.