Quote of the day: People on a plane edition

March 19, 2007

Quote of the day: People on a plane edition

I was on a plane this morning before my brain was fully functioning, and so decided to flip through an issue of People someone had left behind, rather than my Stephen Jay Gould book or pedagogy text. In an article about Richard Hatch‘s alleged* tax evasion, I came across this gem of Hatch’s, in reference to the six months he spent in the Plymouth County [MA] Correctional Facility:

The conversation was inane beyond anything I could possibly describe, which is the mental torture of jail that most people don’t understand.

I almost don’t know what to say about this.

Almost.

I don’t at all doubt that Hatch was miserable during those six months. Some of his other complaints are that he had no privacy, the guards spit in his food, and there were two TVs in the room, “so [he] lived all day long with Jerry Springer blaring.” The first two things are indeed horrid, and while I imagine that six months of Jerry Springer would reduce me to a quivering pile of cellular waste, I’m not sure the man who gained notoriety by wandering around naked–and, of course, ultimately winning–the first Survivor is in a position to gripe about Jerry Springer’s show.

What really struck me about his statement, though, is his use of the word “torture.” Plenty of people joke about being tortured, or use the idea of being tortured as hyperbole. I imagine I’ve done so plenty of times. However, “torture” has particular resonance for me at the moment given what’s been happening at Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib, and elsewhere. I appreciate that Richard Hatch believes that he’s being unjustly punished, and his description of his experiences in that particular jail are an attempt to gain sympathy, but in my case, he achieved the opposite effect.

I’m not entirely sure what I’m getting at, aside from maybe it would be kinda nice if the US could try to set a good example by not torturing people–I’m running on a mere hour of sleep and the synapses aren’t firing as well as they might. At any rate, it amused me that even a rather fluffy mag can get me worked up if I’m in the right mood.

*Does one still say “alleged” after the person in question has actually been convicted of the crime? My confusion comes from his denial that he is at fault…

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