Response to Five Theses on Torture

One point in Five Theses on Torture which really struck me as significant was when Idelber Avelar mentions the legacies of dictatorships.  Normally, when we think about the "legacy" of something or someone, it tends to be in a positive and nearly heroic light; however, it is definitely brought to a negative connotation when associated with dictatorship.  Specifically, the legacies of dictatorships mainly deals with the lexical and linguistic effects a dictatorship has upon the society.  Avelar's point is very similar to what we discovered in A Lexicon of Terror in the sense that language carries heavy ramifications which make progressing from a dictatorship especially difficult, such as the transition after Nazi Germany with Hitler in power or in Argentina with the various military-backed dictators who unlawfully corrupted the government and society.  As words become associated with terror, confession, or torture, these words become "haunted" in a sense, and keeping these words in a society's vocabulary only detracts from its ability to eventually progress.  Even minor subtleties in language can carry certain connotations with them which makes usage of specific words or phrases have a negative or pessimistic association with it.  Language holds a great impact upon society, and any damage caused to lexicon will hurt society as well.