Upon rereading what I wrote, I realize I steered the discussion towards politics, which wasn't my conscious intention.

I do agree with what you said, Frank, about the use of torture. Inhumane methods that yield unreliable results not only don't serve justice, they don't serve security either.

What was driving me, though, was the parallel paths taken by art and life.

High art prophesies social trends, very often, and scientific advances more often than one would think. It taps into the unconscious mind of the artist, who as an artist has heightened powers of perception, though often without concrete understanding of what he perceives. If he has genius, he can depict a piece of the world to come because he hears a future echo of its voice.

We don't usually see this on TV, because most TV production is pop art. Pop art keeps up with current fashion if it's good, and misses the boat if it's not. Pop art doesn't lead. It gives us visuals, a soundtrack, and a narrative to accompany where we are now.

Some pop artists, too, have genius, which they use to get under the skin of society to provoke, inspire or shock. But pop art never takes us anywhere at least some of us didn't ask to go. Beaumarchais's The Marriage of Figaro inspired French aristocrats to criticize their own power, just before the French Revolution. Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin shocked America with a vehicle to argue over slavery, just before the Civil War. Norman Lear's All in the Family provoked its viewers into examining our own behavior during the expansion of the civil rights movement in the 1970s. This is all great pop performance art.

I suspect that Dexter will turn out to be something less memorable and important, using a shocking idea to attract attention rather than deliberately to provoke thought. Nevertheless, I believe the idea would not have sold if torture as something acceptable were not being bandied about. Some of us have already asked to go there, so someone saw a market for an entertainment property. I find that scary, but enlightening. I like to know where I'm living.