#27 The Cracks of Impunity
from Orders in Decay Hosted by General
Producer: Kush Popat. In 1965, Indonesia underwent a seismic period of societal upheaval following a genocide which culled the population by more than 500,000. Freemen roamed freely as gangsters, enlisted by the government to commit incomprehensibly horrific crimes, to murder without repercussion on an industrial scale. Without a doubt, such banal crimes cast a bleak comment on the whole of society. How can openly acknowledged crimes go unpunished, and a regime of impunity prevail, placing the actors in positions of privilege, benefit and veneration? How can punishment for such grave crimes, and by extension feelings of guilt, culpability and responsibility, be evaded? These are the harsh questions this podcast explores, particularly through the lens of Joshua Oppenheimer’s ‘The Act of Killing’ and with an analysis into the human psyche. Having explored such morbidity, what does this hold for the future? What sort of message is portrayed about the world as a whole?
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