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Why You Should Consider Watching the James Foley Execution Video

I don’t believe and would never suggest that you should watch it. But I won’t say you shouldn’t.

This week a video of a murder was posted on Youtube and later taken down. The victim was journalist James Foley. He was killed by a member of ISIS.

People had differing reactions to the video. The most prevalent sentiment, on social media and in opinion articles, was that people shouldn’t watch it.

Now, I don’t believe and would never suggest that you should watch it. But I won’t say you shouldn’t. Also, I don’t think my words will make much of a difference either way. The truth is nobody but you can make the decision to look for the video, and nobody is going to stop you from seeing the video, and no one need ever find out that you watched it—these are just facts.

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What I am suggesting is that you don’t use concepts like entertainment, terrorism, respect, and dignity to prevent you from thinking deeply about what this is a video of and what it means.

Twitter, I don't need to see a photo or a video of James Wright Foley's last moments. Give him his dignity, not ISIS the publicity.

— Ben Stanley (@BDStanley) August 19, 2014

The video does not injure the dignity of James Foley.

When I watch the video I see a brave man who knows he’s about to die – who has been living with his death for over a year, who’s suffered torture, and who – within the last week – was probably told by his captors that his murder would serve as propaganda for his torturers. He knows these things and he gets on with it, not without fear but through fear.

“What do you need me to say, so that you won’t torture me? What do you want my last words to be? Okay. I’ll say them.”

He is forced to say, at length, “America has killed me.” He addresses most of his statement to his brother, who is in the air force. Then the man who murders Foley makes a similar point, that what’s about to happen is the fault of the USA. Neither of them seems convinced, and they are not convincing. America’s decision to give air support to the Kurds and the Iraqi state is too abstract, a world away from what’s about to take place on this sandy hill.

Foley’s body tenses when he realises the knife is coming. The video cuts to black and when it comes back we see Foley’s decapitated head placed on his back. It’s very disturbing, a stark image of the evil men can commit.

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However, we never stop sympathising with James Foley and the image doesn't change how you feel about him. It hurts to see him like this, it really does. A precious life is gone and it should hurt.

But James Foley isn’t in any pain, and the good that he did in this world has not been killed. That is his dignity. It remains because who could remove it? What image, however gruesome, could possibly take away the impact of his life's work; work that helped us understand people different from us, people with another culture, from another land, being torn apart by war?

Please don't search for the James Foley murder video. That's what the terrorists want. #RespectJamesFoley

— Kimothy Walker (@KimothyWalker) August 20, 2014

This video wasn’t meant for us. It seems to me that this is a recruitment video.

The murderer sounds like a British national; the video has certain graphic effects—such as a false digital glaze and VHS era glitches – that resemble a vision of terrorism you might see in a blockbuster action film. Who would find such imagery compelling? Young men, residing in the west, who already sympathise with ISIS. A recent count of the number of foreign fighters in the ISIS ranks is around 1,200. They want more, obviously, and so the murderer in this video repeatedly explains how catastrophic the US intervention is, he claims that by attacking Islamic State forces the US is attacking all Muslims. It’s impossible to be certain of their motives but the video is deliberate. It seems likely that they cut away from the most violent moments because potential recruits aren’t ready for them.

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Police warn sharing James Foley killing video is a crime http://t.co/MgJMeNcRkE - Just to warn sick people who think this is entertainment!

— Rob Breakwell (@rbbreakwell) August 20, 2014

What are people saying when they suggest others are watching the video for entertainment?

I can only speak from personal experience. When I sense that a part of me would be entertained by seeing something horrific my first instinct, to cope with the shame this causes, is to insist to others that that it’s not in any way entertaining. By stating such a position I feel better.

But we needn’t feel ashamed. You only need to look at the art we enjoy – all the violent paintings, novels, movies, and television – to know that violence holds a thrill for humanity. It’s natural for people to think that unrepresented violence, genuine horror, would hold a similar if not more potent thrill. And it might. The thrill we experience is the catharsis of being witness to how vulnerable our bodies are, and the inevitability of our deaths.

It’s possible to watch the video, to understand where that thrill is coming from, and still be reflective and serious about deeper issues.

"Don’t watch it because its gruesome and upsetting" - this is the reason that makes sense. And I think that's what most people who are arguing against viewing it mean but when humans start arguing a point they bring up every single notion that could conceivably bolster that point, even if it doesn't make sense.

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So why should you consider watching the video? I can't tell you. You might have your own reasons. Again, it will come across as self-centred, but I can only speak from personal experience. Anything else would be pontificating, or bullshit.

I didn’t watch it just for the thrill. I made sure it wasn't just one more thing I did online today. I didn't watch it and do nothing about it, I thought through the issues that I wrote about in this article—as small a thing as that is.

I watched it realising that it’s a very strange age we live in, a time when you can order a computer to show someone being executed. But more than that, I watched it aware that this is a man who loved and was loved. I read the articles and posts penned by his family, friends, and colleagues. They’re heartbreaking and they give you an idea of who James Foley was.

James Foley committed his life to teaching those of us in the parts of the world that are comfortable about the parts of the world that are suffering, and he gave up everything for it. He once said, “If reporters … don’t try to get really close to what these guys – men, women, Americans, and now with the Arab revolution young Arab men, young Egyptians and Libyans – are experiencing, we don’t understand the world, essentially.”

If you want to watch the video no one is stopping you. Am I glad I watched it? In a way that I'm not comfortable with, yes. I understand the world a little better now.

Here is the reason I watched the video: people did this to James Foley and I am a person. James Foley was a person like me, and he was murdered.

Follow Girard on Twitter.