APA Resolution--Members Do Torture--NOT!!!

The American Psychological Association passed a resolution by vote to bar members from taking part in torture.

I applaud them!

More and more social scientists have, for various reasons, joined with governments to play an active part in programs, projects, and campaigns. It has always seemed to me that the ethical and intellectual risks of such participation are great and grave.

(I am educated as a cultural anthropologist. Back when I was in a Big 10 school, we studied something called applied anthropology, which revolved around what anthropologists did and could do for government and corporate projects. Heleter skelter, I had to mull this stuff over a little.)

Here's how I see it--The optimal relationship with government activities is something on the order of observation from a morally grounded distance. Even when that moral distance may involve non-participation in government activities or resistance to the government activities.

Here's a link from Open Anthropology:

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http://openanthropology.wordpress.com/2008/09/20/apa-votes-to-ban-participation-in-torture/

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