5 ms·

Violence is structural.

by vippy 10y ago

twoquestions 10y ago
Would you mind elaborating on this? I'm afraid I don't know what you mean.
- vinceguidry 10y ago
  Not the commenter, but I came across this term in the book Fields of Blood by Karen Armstrong. Essentially society requires violence to function. In the beginning, someone had to coerce farmers to produce a surplus, with this surplus the first states and militaries were built. As societies evolved, the violence became less overt and more implied, embedded within the structures of the state. At some point, in order to have a society and not anarchy, you have to have people telling other people what to do, and these people can't take no for an answer. All you can do is reshuffle it so it's less and less onerous over time. It's a thread that runs throughout the book, in order to explain religion and nationalism and war were deeply entwined all throughout recorded history and well into prehistory for as long as we've had the mental capacity to think about matters larger than we are.
  - stray 10y ago
    Society and anarchy are not mutually exclusive.
    - vinceguidry 10y ago
      Depends on how you define the terms.
      - cname 10y ago
        The most common definitions of political anarchy (if you will, as opposed to simplistic "anarchy = chaos" definitions) indicate that it's a form of society. Typical tenets include free association and mutual aid, which are inherently social concepts.
        vinceguidry 10y ago
        Can you give me any real-world examples of an anarchic society?
grillvogel 10y ago
Is war as old as gravity?
gozur88 10y ago
Violence was always structural. That doesn't explain an increase in suicides.
- msandford 10y ago
  Perhaps now that the rising tide that floats all boats that America had going from the 40s-80s (or something like that) has peaked, suicide rates are just going back to normal. It's pretty rare throughout history that your kids will almost surely be better off than you were. We enjoyed a brief spurt of that here in the US. It's probably over. Welcome back to the old normal.

Violence is structural.

by vippy 10y ago

Violence is structural.

twoquestions 10y ago

Would you mind elaborating on this? I'm afraid I don't know what you mean.

vinceguidry 10y ago
Not the commenter, but I came across this term in the book Fields of Blood by Karen Armstrong. Essentially society requires violence to function. In the beginning, someone had to coerce farmers to produce a surplus, with this surplus the first states and militaries were built. As societies evolved, the violence became less overt and more implied, embedded within the structures of the state. At some point, in order to have a society and not anarchy, you have to have people telling other people what to do, and these people can't take no for an answer. All you can do is reshuffle it so it's less and less onerous over time. It's a thread that runs throughout the book, in order to explain religion and nationalism and war were deeply entwined all throughout recorded history and well into prehistory for as long as we've had the mental capacity to think about matters larger than we are.
- stray 10y ago
  Society and anarchy are not mutually exclusive.
  - vinceguidry 10y ago
    Depends on how you define the terms.
    - cname 10y ago
      The most common definitions of political anarchy (if you will, as opposed to simplistic "anarchy = chaos" definitions) indicate that it's a form of society. Typical tenets include free association and mutual aid, which are inherently social concepts.
      - vinceguidry 10y ago
        Can you give me any real-world examples of an anarchic society?

grillvogel 10y ago

Is war as old as gravity?

gozur88 10y ago

Violence was always structural. That doesn't explain an increase in suicides.

msandford 10y ago
Perhaps now that the rising tide that floats all boats that America had going from the 40s-80s (or something like that) has peaked, suicide rates are just going back to normal. It's pretty rare throughout history that your kids will almost surely be better off than you were. We enjoyed a brief spurt of that here in the US. It's probably over. Welcome back to the old normal.