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Soldiers now pose, thumbs up, before the atrocities they commit, and send off the pictures to their buddies and family. What is revealed by these photographs is as much the culture of shamelessness as the reigning admiration for unapologetic brutality. Ours is a society in which secrets of private life that, formerly, you would have given nearly anything to conceal, you now clamor to get on a television show to reveal.

Susan Sontag#36

CultureMediaPrivacyShame

About this quote

What does it mean?
Soldiers posing before atrocities and people seeking exposure of private secrets reveal a culture that admires brutality and celebrates shamelessness.
In plain terms
Brutality and exposing private secrets show a culture that values shamelessness.
What can you take from it?
Recognize when exposure becomes a tool for brutality or fame.

Where it applies

  • media criticism
  • conflict zones
  • social media trends

Putting it to work

  • critique violent imagery
  • value privacy

Questions to consider

  • What does exposing pain say about us?
  • Why do we seek attention?

Another view

Some private revelations are necessary for accountability rather than shame.

More from Susan Sontag

  1. People do these things to other people. Not just in Nazi concentration camps and in Abu Ghraib when it was run by Saddam Hussein. Americans, too, do them when …

    Permalink to quote #35
  2. The Bush administration has committed the country to a new, pseudo-religious doctrine of war, endless war - for 'the war on terror' is nothing less than that.

    Permalink to quote #37
  3. The expression of satisfaction at the acts of torture one is inflicting on helpless, trussed, naked victims is only part of the story. There is the primal sati…

    Permalink to quote #34

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