Life Imitates TV & That Never Works Well

Before the 2002 season, I was a fan of 24.  I admit it.  I found the concept intriguing and the characters cool and quirky.  The men were men and the women were men, but still, I was hooked.  After 9/11, I feared that “Axis of Evil” fear-speak would seep in to make the show real in a creepy way and, probably, racist.  I think I was right, from what I forced myself to watch of that first, new and horrible world, season.

In the years since, while reading about the programme of torture that the US initiated against “rogue combatants” from Afghanistan and Iraq, I’ve often wondered if the culture had been influenced to accept manners of violence that might once have been rejected due to the influence of that very popular programme.  Now, matttbastard at bastard.logic has come up with evidence that shows my view wasn’t entirely off the wall:

Jack Bauer had many friends at Guantánamo Bay, Beaver [Lieutenant Colonel Diane Beaver, staff judge advocate, Guantanamo Bay] said, “he gave people lots of ideas.” She believed the series contributed to an environment in which those at Guantánamo were encouraged to see themselves as being on the frontline - and to go further than they otherwise might.  (read more at bastard.logic here or:

Phillip Sands, Vanity Fair, May 2008  It’s a “must read”.