Professional associations can be unaccountable, self-interested and reactionary. (It was the American Medical Association that almost single-handedly killed national health insurance during the Truman years.) But at a time when so many independent sources of civic power have been weakened, many have acquitted themselves quite well, and proven to be indispensable counter points to Bushism. The American Medical Association banned doctors from participating in the interrogations at Guantanamo, and the American Bar Association has been outspoken in asserting the detainees’ legal rights. Now, the latest professional association to chime in: ethnomusicologists condemn using music for torture. Don’t laugh. Blasting music non-stop, like sleep deprivation is sadistic. Kudos to the ethnomusicologists.
