18 January 2021
War is Community-Condoned Violence
From the beginning of recorded time, human society has allowed violence in the service of communal interests. It is up to the community to define what those interests are. They are often defined retroactively, as in the case of revolution, for example. Thus there can be conflict between self-righteous parties. The winning party gets to set the rules.
Those rules may include absolute principles that forbid rebellion. Therefore, those who violently revolt against the dominant order are usually punished. The dominant order will usually claim that such insurrection violates a universal value. If one advocates a realistic approach to politics, rebellion is justifiable after it succeeds.The assault on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021; therefore, was unforgivable because it was hopeless. Nevertheless, it was a natural expression of frustration by disaffected members of society. In that way it was like war. Civilly ordered societies may also fall into violence when their members have conflicting interests. Both human exercises of violence are common in history; moreover, both are deplorable under the rules of the dominant order.
Under the rules of the US government the perpetrators of the assault on the Capitol deserve prosecution to the full extent of the law. A recurrence of that insurrection will only be prevented when the rebels are subsumed in the benefits that draw allegiance from the members of society’s dominant group.
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