aside from physical harm, the essence of "abuse" is the violation of another person's dignity, whether it be the brutal and/or unnecessary strip search by corrupt cops, or the humiliating hoops one is forced to jump through to obtain social aid under many programmes. if this violation of dignity were recognised as an offence in and of itself, there would be less insistence on proof of gross physical harm to recognise that harm had, in fact, occurred. we wouldn't be seeing hideous quasi-jesuitical debates about whether it's really "torture" if major metabolic function is not impaired. The difference between theory and practise in practise ...
"...there's a lot of conceptual power here. for example, a dignitarian society would allow people their dignity even in criminal proceedings -- humiliation, torture, sexual abuse of prisoners would be absolutely unacceptable. ..."
This was one of the first things that came to my mind, as well, in reading the diary; and it came to mind precisely in the context of your previous defense of prisoners' rights.
"if this violation of dignity were recognised as an offence in and of itself, there would be less insistence on proof of gross physical harm to recognise that harm had, in fact, occurred. we wouldn't be seeing hideous quasi-jesuitical debates about whether it's really "torture" if major metabolic function is not impaired.
Exactly. A much-needed observation. "In such an environment it is not surprising that the ills of technology should seem curable only through the application of more technology..." John W Aldridge
