Structural violence

They will say, no doubt, that this was just another isolated incident, another case of "lawful killing" (has the police ever been involved in unlawful killing?). Random, senseless killing by a troubled man (always is just that when it's a white person).

What no-one wants to look at, or can stomach, is that-as Roth says-the country was built on a century of slavery followed by a century of segregation (and let's not talk of the Red Man, shall we). And here's the dope: surely the most important kind of violence is actually a deep rooted, structural violence. No wonder it goes without comment because that would actually mean questioning the role of the state. (Foucault had it spot on when talking about the Nazis: state racism).

So, the real story is about how men in uniforms commit so much violence (partly because they're men; partly because they're in uniform and part of the sate apparatus). It's about how much of that violence is lurking in the background, how it underwrites the very functioning of the markets.

Meanwhile, back in the land of the pure a discussion about the disappeared in Balochistan gets canceled because the ISI thugs step in and tell us to call it off. And here, again, the underlying story is the immense power (economic and otherwise) of the army, their role in fostering the the fundamentalist groups for their own interests. who's in bed with who? Well, when you think about it isn't it odd that America has supported so many military dictators here? General Z, Musharraf..

Well, not really. Money: it's the oldest game in town-and the most boring as well.

~


Simone W. was right when she said the only gods left are money and the state. In an age which doesn't even believe in "gods" it's now the minor ones of guns & information. 

Graeber: Guns and Information.