Jack Bauer: Hero OR Inhumane Criminal?

Question

Torture methods used by Mr. Bauer include: beatings, electric shock, suffocation, psychologically tormenting a detainee by showing him a mock execution of his children, withholding pain killers from a suspect suffering from a severe gunshot wound, shooting a detainee in the leg and threatening to shoot the other one, injecting painful and toxic chemicals into detainees, etc.

Not guilty or Guilty?

Answer 1

The question is meaningless because the plot of _24_ and the character of Jack Bauer are designed to be ambiguous enough to let people see whichever they want in his character.

To those who are more attuned to wonder about our security, Jack Bauer looks like a hero. For those who worry more about the laws and principles that make up the US being compromised, Jack Bauer looks like a criminal. Either view represents a pole in a continuum, an extreme which looks entirely at one aspect of a problem to the complete denial or exclusion of another.

One should consider the artificiality of the construction of the story's environment. Although it purports to be a show about terrorism, it's actually nothing of the sort, because real terrorism isn't nearly as interesting. The "real time" part of the show is a plot device to keep events moving and the forcing of events together under time constraints is merely a way to provide suspense. There's a lot of current-day events as window dressing but ultimately the core of the story is one of chase and vengeance. Fayed wants to get back at Bauer for nearly killing him. Jack is given up to him, breaks out and almost quits but a nuke goes off, rededicating him to the cause. And so it goes. The core of the story goes to personal enmities and ultimately the terror trappings are just window dressing. You see the same kind of story told over and over in different environments. They're simply doing what works. There's no denying that 24 is gripping TV and that Fox has a winner here.

The real scary thing about 24 is the fact that some people confuse it with the real thing. Folks who think Jack Bauer would be a model soldier in the current war on terror fantasize that if we simply get nasty enough and kill the right people the problem will go away. They would do well to consider that our current situation has roots that start long before 9/11, and that many of our problems in Iraq come from the fact that we blundered into a situation with complicated political and social dimensions and trying to treat it like a military problem has only worsened our situation. Conversely a fantasy of those who would criminalize Jack Bauer is that any problem can be solved by military or diplomatic means. Even Bill Clinton ordered missile attacks in 1998.

It cuts both ways, though. One of the basic phenomena we've got to come to grips with is a democratization of warfare. Once upon a time, weapons were much more expensive and much less powerful and sophisticated than they are now. It used to be that political violence was pretty much the exclusive province of nation-states. Groups without governmental support couldn't assemble enough people and get enough materiel together to engage in political violence. Uprisings and resistances were in the main handled easily, and groups so extreme as to reject the political process entirely and attempts to influence society through violence were limited to small groups which were so extreme and eccentric as to easily get labelled as members of the lunatic fringe. So nowadays we remember events like Sacco and Vanzetti's trial or Timothy McVeigh's Oklahoma City bombing not in the annals of history but as a sort of political Tales from the Outer Limits, and their organizers as crazy.

Fast-forward a few years. Rather than existing as isolated pockets, widely dispersed populations of aggrieved extremists find support through Internet bulletin boards across national boundaries efortlessly. Rather than being able to build little more than the occasional bomb, individuals with the right connections can get hold of RPG's, shoulder-fired rockets, and scarier forms of weaponry. Soon, political violence, once exclusively the province of nations who had controlled the beast with balances of power and other institutional and political controls, is trickling down further and further past anyone's ability to control it. I personally find the subject quite compelling, but it seems almost everybody else would rather talk about Jack Bauer.

Answer 2

He is a hero. As a third party watching the show Jack is always right and we can see he is right in the end. It costs him personally and he does what needs to be done and we see that. In the murky real world its now always so easy but then again we all know that passive, appeasement oriented leaders invite others to kick their **** so give me someone who is willing to walk softly but carry a big stick as opposed to disarmament any day. Buh Bye.

Answer 3

Jack Bauer is neither a hero nor an inhumane criminal he is simply a fictional character. I do not understand what all the fuss is about! Tom Clancy's novels contain concepts and ideas that are probably more of a threat to national security and peace than this television show.

Given, there are probably idiots out there that try to mimic his actions. That is not the show's fault. We didn't burn all of the copies of "Catcher in the Rye" because of Chapman or Hinkley.
And that's just one example.

Personal responsibility has to come into play somewhere.

Answer 4

If it is necessary to make a distinction, then I would make it that torture to obtain information from an individual that you have high confidence he has in order to save thousands of other lives is not on the same plane as torturing helpless captives for the sake of hate or the sake of torture. Like raping women, killing whole families, mass executions, experimentation, deliberate starvation and genocide.
Neither circumstance is humane, pleasant or desirable, but I believe they are clearly distinguishable.

Answer 5

Although his mehtods may be considered inhumane, is it not inhumane to murder massive amounts of people. One horrible person`s pain is worth saving hundreds of thousands of people. Anyway, it`s a tv show!

Answer 6

His not Guilty, he's a hero

Answer 7

hero

Answer 8

USA! USA! USA!!!

!!!!!!