But war is politics by other means, so politics is war by other means. Even in peacetime, the state is predicated on force. And this use of force requires justification. The atrocity story is the tool used to convince people that the use of state force is legitimate. Coming from a different vantage point, Rene Girard would call this a “founding

... See more

You don’t kill the movement by killing the man; you hand the movement his ghost. Worse, it gives his allies carte blanche to crack down harder, scream about “lawlessness,” and tighten their grip in ways the system can’t easily reverse. Nonviolent resistance doesn’t just look better — it works better, because it leaves the institutions intact and... See more