Published in 2003, Susan Sontag’s (1933-2004) brilliant essay on photography, journalism, and ethics will certainly make you think.
War has been a constant alongside humanity. But in modern life when it occurs we get a thoroughly up close view of human suffering.
But how do you react to the carnage? With outrage? A belief that war is wrong and pacifism is the way forward?
Sontag challenges conventional notions and also takes on Virginia Woolf’s book Three Guineas (1938), whilst also debunking a number of misconceptions about war.
We must note it’s note this was Sontag’s last work before her death, making it a particularly poignant read.
Humanity Becoming Desensitised in Regarding the Pain of Others
Okay, so this was quite the riveting read. Sontag proved controversial throughout her life, including with some left-wingers (which is the side she leaned towards, eh?).
This essay concerns itself with the pain and suffering of others, and how this is projected onto millions of television screens and devices across the world.
The front cover of the book is adorned with Francisco Goya’s the Disasters of War. It’s a bleak image that matches the tone of what Sontag had to say, which is how people who look at images of war can’t really comprehend what war is like.
Further to that, she also critiques individuals who respond with shock when another war breaks out.
“Someone who is permanently surprised that depravity exists, who continues to feel disillusioned (even incredulous) when confronted with evidence of what humans are capable of inflicting in the way of gruesome, hands-on cruelties upon other humans, has not reached moral or psychological adulthood.”
Most of us, by now, have seen a lot of images of death and destruction, whether it’s from old pictures from WWII or footage from the Iraq war, but most of us haven’t (rather thankfully) had to go into pitched battle.
What Sontag explains is how photography, and images, are a historical record, but one which many of us can’t relate to in any great depth. Many legendary historical images, she explains, were staged to achieve greater effect.
She also discusses the modern merits of photography and what it means to take images in a war zone.
“Narratives can make us understand. Photographs do something else: they haunt us.”
And further with this.
“That we are not totally transformed, that we can turn away, turn the page, switch the channel, does not impugn the ethical value of an assault by images. It is not a defect that we are not seared, that we do not suffer enough, when we see these images. Neither is the photograph supposed to repair our ignorance about the history and causes of the suffering it picks out and frames. Such images cannot be more than an invitation to pay attention, to reflect, to learn, to examine the rationalizations for mass suffering offered by established powers. Who caused what the picture shows? Who is responsible? Is it excusable? Was it inevitable? Is there some state of affairs which we have accepted up to now that ought to be challenged? All this, with the understanding that moral indignation, like compassion, cannot dictate a course of action.”
Recently we updated this post (November 2023). Our original writing was from 2018, prior to the war in Ukraine and subsequent outbreaks elsewhere around the war.
The intrusive nature of photography, and journalism, that Sontag aims at is more prevalent than ever. Elsewhere, too, in acts of terrorism we witness around the world. Or in random acts of violence in your local town just down the road.
Having died in 2004, she missed the sudden onset of amateur journalism and photography brought about by social media and smartphones.
But we’re sure she’d have been less than impressed by the relentless selfies. Ultimately, this is a challenging piece of writing which is best delved into to make you think about the modern world.
You can look elsewhere for similarly pertinent topics with other intellectuals from the 20th century (see Simone de Beauvoir’s A Very Easy Death).
Here in Sontag’s work we have themes of authority and responsibility.
Why is it important we look at these pictures, and news stories, of unspeakable actions taking place hundreds (if not thousands) of miles away? As we must consider the suffering of others whilst we reflect through personal privileges.
Susan Sontag and Life Lessons on Critical Thinking
Our takeaway from her life’s work is how she encouraged all of us just think critically. Apply some keen logic to situations to come out of it all with a stronger moral compass.
Amongst her many talents, Sontag was a political activist and filmmaker.
A keen photographer, too, she was in awe at the beauty and power of the medium, whilst also concerned by its capacity to, essentially, distort history or tell a savage story.
That and her interest in understanding the brutality of violence. This drove a lot of her work forward, with a genuine sense of compassion she had to delve into some very unpleasant, bleak failures of the human condition.
This led her to remark in Regarding the Pain of Others:
“To paraphrase several sages: Nobody can think and hit someone at the same time.”
If you’d like to know more about the lady and her awesome brains, then a good place to start is this book and also Against Interpretation (1966) which includes some more challenging essays about culture and the nature of critics.
