Despite the
restrictions placed on Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee by an
overly secretive government about who they could question and what they could
question them about, the committee managed to produce a damning report
last week about the extent of British complicity in the rendition and torture
of suspects by US agencies. It’s easy,
of course, for the MPs (and for me, sitting comfortable well away from the
events) to be horrified at what was done and at the apparent complacency of
those acting in our name. And there are
the inevitable calls for action to be taken.
But for me, the
real underlying lesson of all of this wasn’t that there are rogue individuals,
condoning and participating in activities which they knew to be wrong. It is, rather, about the thinness of the
veneer of civilisation, and how easy it is for people to simply ‘fall in’ with
whatever is being done. Unacceptable
actions become – or perhaps it might be more appropriate to say ‘appear to
become’ - acceptable when those involved are under pressure to produce results
or to work with 'allies' who have a different attitude or approach.
It isn’t the
first time in human history that we’ve seen people simply slip into a way of
operating or take a lead from their superiors.
And it won’t be the last either.
But amongst the recriminations and justifiable criticisms of a failure
of leadership, we should also reflect on what it tells us about how deeply those
infamous ‘British values’ which the politicians keep banging on about are – or
rather, are not – ingrained. It turns
out that, when push comes to shove, they’re actually pretty superficial - more
talked about than adhered to.
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