Cassandra is zine (ezine for now) about the future. Each issue takes on a single topic, and invites artists, writers, poets, and people with something to express on that issues' topic. The current CFP/first issue is on "Harmless Torturers," if you're interested in contributing, read The Rules and this CFP first.
If you've read the CFP, and you're ready to pitch, mail pitches@cassandrazine.com
~Harmless Torturers~
Imagine this: I am handing you a small device with a single beige button on it. If you press the button, you'll see a gif. Who doesn't like to see gifs? They're not all hilarious, but some are pretty good. Every time you press the button, two things happen: you get a new gif, and the tiniest little scratchy brush bristle pokes into a man somewhere in a far away place you'll never meet. That one scratch is so light he can barely feel it, and besides, he quite distracted right now. He's not going to think of you because his skin being flayed off bristle by bristle all over his body, as he is tortured by hundreds of thousands of people all over the world who have been given a gif-displaying box with a beige button on it. People who also like gifs. Your part in that is very small, a mere drop in an ocean. If you stop pressing the button the one little bristle will stop, but that doesn't mean any the others will stop. You don't even have to know about the man if you don't want to. We can stop talking about him right now, we can never bring him up again.
Do we have a deal?
In this (inaugural) issue of Cassandra we'll be talking about philosopher Derek Parfit's concept of the Harmless Torturer: a small actor who partakes in some small way in a greater whole which does a lot of damage. His original example was essentially the same as my gif-laden version, and his conclusion was that it was in fact very wrong to be a harmless torturer, especially once you know what you're doing. From his Reasons and Persons:
"They know that, though none of them makes any perceptible difference, they together inflict on their victims severe pain. There are countless actual cases of this kind.... though each act has trivial effects, it is often true that we together impose great harm on ourselves or others. Some examples are pollution, congestion, depletion, inflation, unemployment, a recession, over-fishing, over-farming, soil-erosion, famine, and overpopulation. While we have these false beliefs, our ignorance is an excuse. But after we have seen that these beliefs are false, we have no excuse."
And yet, this old scold died in 2017, getting himself out of the moral problems of our age the easy way. We're still left here with our beige buttons and our understandable desire for not only gifs, but new clothes, cool cars, ever more functional electronic doodads, fancy foods, and even the screaming delight that comes of trashing some rando online who did something wrong near a camera.
Mere existence in certain places and times comes with the added effect that something or someone might need to get tortured because you're there and counted. That might not have as much moral culpability as pressing the beige button, but it still comes with the abstract anxiety that maybe we should be doing something to mitigate the harm caused by being, for instance, an American whose tax dollars are used to kill children with sky robots every now and again.
We'll be bringing you stories, art, and perspectives on being harmless torturers, how to deal with it, and how, if it's possible, to get out of this moral mess while we're still alive.