MCLC: The language of violence (2)

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The language of violence (2)
Hi, Yali and everyone.
That's a bit out of context: the previous sentence says "when the police used unprovoked force ... people streamed into the squares, motivated by anger." The point is not that they never attacked the protesters -- they did, and I say so -- but that such attacks transformed the conversation, and that the more violence the police choose to use, the more energetic and vigorous the response of the people. During periods when the police were not attacking them ("In the absence of..."), protestor behavior was naturally quite different.
I'm more regretful about the infelicity of the end of the paragraph, "as yet without casualties," which probably reinforces the tone you're objecting to, and makes less sense from my perspective. I was trying to get across that the occupation didn't end because of the threat of violence -- which I think is true, and am curious if you agree -- but I ended up unintentionally obscuring the many beatings and other crimes committed against protestors, both during and after the occupation. There's something about control of public narratives at play here -- states often benefit from masking or hiding the violence they do, and I would hate to be a participant in that.
Luckily, it's a digital essay with a comments section -- if you post something at the bottom of the page, I can reply something like "good point." I would love BR readers to be able to hear the voice of someone involved. Please feel invited to speak at length -- the original title of the essay was "A Theory of Aggregate Violence," and I really am trying to think through something rather than prove an argument, so your opinion/evidence counts.
Thanks,
Nick Admussen <nadmusse at yahoo.com>
by denton.2 at osu.edu on April 30, 2016
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