benjamin+ +critique+of+violence
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WALTER BE
A Gennall philosophel; iVa Iter became aile l1Iostalld cultllral theorists the twentieth century. He was born into all
ill Berlin, then studied philosophy in im r l 1 f W f l 11
and Bern.
criticism and translation.leddoctoral ;1, ,tnii ' l1
embarked ll a career of liteI'm),Goethe's Elective Affinities
r,-/it,r; more specifically, his unconvellfiol1a/
Drama trails.,an academic career were
rejected his dissertation.
the Nazis came to power in 1933 Germany for Paris.i l l 194 when the Nazis France. Headillg toward he illtended to
escape to the United States, but was CIIptured; on finding out that he would be turnedhe killed the Fmllco-Sprwish border.
ll art suggests /lot that art and social are il1extriCilble
but also that to the extent that social life is characterized technology and class, the
the to take politicn[ action cOl/sistellt with hisor her artistic ideals. nlis conviction later into a offascisllland allY stance.
His other works inclllde Illuminations trans., Reflections: Essays
Writings The Arcades
alld Understanding Brecht (English trans., His
emergent Soviet Union, written27, are recorded in the Moscow Diaries (English trans.,
a visit to Moscow i111926- 111e following essay s
Reflections.
W LTER BEN IN
The task of a of violence can be summarized as that of its
relation to law and For a cause however becomes violent in
the sense of the word only when it bears on moral issues. The sphere of
these issues is defined the concepts ofl w nd justice. With regard to the firstit is clear that the most l l V U ~ H Pwithin any system
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antinomy would prove insoluble if the common assumption were
false if means on the one hand and just ends on the other were in
irreconcilable conflict. No insight into this problem could be
until the circular argument had been broken and
both of just ends and of justified means were established.
The realm of ends and therefore also the of a criterion of justnessis excluded for the time from this study. the central place is
to the of the of certain means that constitute
Principles of natural law cannot decide this question but can lead to
bottomless For if positive law is blind to the absoluteness of
natural law is equally so to the of means. n the other the
of law is basis at the outset of this
study because it undertakes a fundamental distinction between kinds of vio
lence independently of cases of their application. This distinction is between
historically so-called sanctioned and unsanctioned vi-
olence. If the considerations from this it cannot of course
mean that given forms of violence are classified in terms of whether they are
sanctioned or not. For in a critique of violence a criterion for the latter in
law cannot concern its uses but only its evaluation. The that
concerns us is what light is thrown on the nature of violence the fact thatsuch a criterion or distinction can be to it at all or in other what
of this distinction? That this distinction supplied positive law1S based on the nature of violence and by any
will soon enough be shown but at the same time light will be shed on thein which alone such a distinction can be made. To sum up: if the criterion
established
regard to its . ' U U H b ' must be criticized with
to its value. For this a standpoint outside legal philosO-but also outside natural law must be found. The extent to which it can
be furnished a historico-philosophical view oflaw will emerge.
The and illegitimate violenceis not obvious. The which a
distinction is drawn between violence used for and ends must be
it has already been indicated that law
demands of all violence a proof of its historicalconditions is declared sanctioned. Since the of legal
violence is most evident in a deliberate submission to its ends a
thetical distinction between kinds of violence must be based on the presence or
absence of a historical acknowledgment of its ends. Ends that lack such
may be called natural the other legal ends. The
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be ost clearly traced
sake of the
pean conditions.
canlegal conditions. For the
of these, as far as the individual as is ISIhe not to admit the natural ends of such individuals in all those cases
in which such ends in a given situation, be violence.
This means: this legal tries to erect, in all areas where individual ends
be pursued by legal ends that can only be realized by
legal power. Indeed, it strives to limit by ends even those areas in which
natural ends are admitted in principle within wide like that of
education, as soon as these natural ends are with an excessive measureof violence, as in the laws to the limits of educational to
I t can be formulated as a maxim of present-day European
that all the natural ends of individuals must collide with legal ends if
or lesser degree of violence. contradiction between
this and the of self-defense will be resolved in what Prom this
As a
not; for then violence as such would not beut thaI directed to illegal ends. I t will be that a
cannot be maintained i f natural ends are
first this is a mereconsider the surprising possibility thai the law's interest in a monopoly of
violence vis-a-vis individuals is not the intention of
legal by that of preserving the law that violence, whennot in the hands of the threatens it not by the ends that it may pursue ut by
its mere existence outside the law. The same more if
one reflects how often the figure of the criminal, however repellent his
ends may have been, has aroused the secret admiration of the public. This
cannot result from his deed, ut from the violence to
witness. In this case, the violence of which
in all areas of activity to the individual appears really and
arouses even in defeat the ,,,nn.,tI',,, of the mass against law. By what funclion
violence can with reason seem so to and be so feared by it, mustbe evident where its even in the legal system, is
This is above all the case in the class r11O ''''>. in the form of the workers'
to strike. labor is apart from the state,
entitled to exercise violence. Against this view there
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is the that an omission a UVU '_, , ' ' ' i , which a strike
is cannot be described as violence. Such a consideration doubtless madeit easier for a state poser to conceive the right to strike, once this was noavoidable. But its truth is not and therefore not unrestricted. I t is
true that the omission of an where it amounts simply to anonviolent, pure means. And as in the
view of the state, or the
a to exercise violence
exercised by the strikes
to strike conceded to labor is
rather, to escape from a violence
to this may occur
from time to time and involve only a "withdrawal" or "estrangement" from the
. The moment of violence, 1S introduced, in the
form of into such an omission, if it takes in the context of a
conscious readiness to resume the suspended action under certain circum
stances that either have whatever to do with this action or only super-
modify it. Understood in this way the to strike constitutes in the
view of which is opposed to that of the state, the right to use force in
attaining certain ends. The antithesis between the two emerges in
all its bitterness in face of a revolutionary strike. In this, labor will
to its right to strike, and the state will call this appeal an since the
to strike was not "so intended," and take emergency measures. For the stateretains the to declare that a simultaneous use of strike in all industries is
illegal, since theI n this differen ce
objective contradiction in the
violence whose ends, as natural ends, it sometimesbut in a crisis (the revolutionary general strike) confronts
everf ' C U . U VA J L ' - ' U
this may appear at first sight, even conduct theexercise of a right canviolent. More
VI',. , , P. < . under certain circumstances, be described as
then may be called violent if it
exerClses a in order to overthrow the system that has conferred it;
when it is nevertheless to be so described if it constitutes extortion inthe sense above. I t therefore reveals an contradiction in thelegal situation, but not a contradiction in the if under certain cir-
cumstances the law meets the as perpetrators of violence, with violence.
For in a strike the state fears above all else that function of violence which it is
the of this study to identify as the only secure foundation of its
. For if violence were, as first appears, the means to secure directly what-
ever happens to be it could fulfill its end as predatory violence. I t would
be entirely unsuitable as a basis or a modification to, stable condi-
tions. The strike that it can be so, that it is able to found and
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legal however offended the sense of may find itselfI t will be objected that such a function of violence is fortuitous and
isolated. This can be rebutted by a consideration of military violence.
The of law rests on the same objective contradic-
tion in the legal situation as does that of strike that is to say, on the fact thatsanction violence whose ends remain for the sanctioners natural
and can therefore in a crisis come into conflict with their own or
natural ends. Admittedly, violence is in the first used di-
toward its ends. Yet it is very striking that even-or
conditions that know hardly the beginnings of
and even in cases where the victor has established
himself in invulnerable possession, a peace ceremony is necessary. In
deed, the word in the sense in which it is the correlative to the word
war (for there is also a different meaning, similarly and
political, the one used by Kant in of Eternal Peace ), denotes this a
priori, necessary of all other of every
victory. This sanction consists precisely in the new conditions as a
new law, quite of whether need de f cto any of theircontinuation. If, conclusions can be drawn from military as
being of all violence used for natural there isinherent in all such violence a H H u u a l l1 , character. We shall return later to the
of this insight. I t the above-mentioned of mod-
ern law to divest the individual, at least as a
that directed only to natural ends. In the
the law with the threat a newIJl
times. The state, ' -rur ,,,,,,.
even
criminal this violence confronts
a threat that even today, despite its
as it did in primeval
~ J n -it as lawmaking whenever external powersto concede them the to conduct and classes the right to strike.
If in the last war the of violence was the point for aof violence in at least one thing, that
violence is no longer exercised and tolerated violence wasnot to criticism for its lawmaking but was also
perhaps more for another of its functions. For a duality in the
function of violence is characteristic which could only come into
being Militarism is the compulsory, universal useof violence as a means to the ends of the state. This
has been scrutinized as closely as, or still more
violence itself. In it violence shows itself in a function quite different from its
application for natural ends. For the subordination of citizens to laws-
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in the present case, to the law of general conscription is a legal end. f hat firstfunction of violence is called the function, this second will be called
lence that is not in from a effective
of it is far less easy than the declamations of pacifists and activists suggest.coincides with the of all legal violence that
or executive force and cannot be performed by any
lesser program. Nor, of course unless one is to achildish anarchism is it achieved any constraint
toward persons and Whatexcludes reflection on the moral and historical spheres, and thereby on
any meaning in
the fact that even the
tive, with its doubtless incontestable minimum
at all times you use both in your person and in the person of all othersas an and never as a means is in itself inadequate for such a
critique. (One might, rather, doubt whether the famous demand does not contain too little, that is whether it is to use, or allow to be oneself
or another in any as a means. Very good for such doubt couldbe For if conscious of its roots, will claim to
and promote the interest of mankind in the person of each incli-
viduaL I t sees this interest in the and of an order
by fate. While this view which claims to preserve law in its verycannot escape nevertheless all attacks that are made merely in thename of a formless freedom;' without being able to this higher order of
freedom, remain against it. And most impotent of all when, instead ofattacking the root and branch, laws
that the law of course, takes under the
resides in the fact that there iswhat belongs
and in
to its order. For law-preservingviolence is a threatening violence. And its threat is not intended as the deterrentthat uninformed liberal theorists it to be. A deterrent in the exact sense
would a that contradicts the nature of a threat and is not
attained by any law since there is of its arm. This makes itall the more like which depends on whether the criminal is
purpose of the of the threat will
There is a useful pointer to it in thethe validity of positive law has been called into question, has
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more criticism than all others. However superficial the arguments
may in most cases have been, their motives were and are rooted in principle. Then l n ( ) T 1 Pn r s of these critics perhaps without knowing why and probably
that an attack on not measure,
notlaws,
butlaw itself in its For violence crowned by
IS
the of law then it may be readily supposed that where the highest vio-
lence, that over life and death, occurs in the legal the origins oflaw
with this is the fact that
even for such crimes ashe deathoffenses against to which it seems quite out of Its pur
pose is not to punish the infringement of law but to establish new law. For in theexercise of violence over life and death more than in any other act, law
reaffirms itself. But in this very violence rotten in law is
above all to a finer because the latter knows itself to beremote from conditions in which fate have shown itself in
such a sentence. Reason must, however, to approach such conditions all
the more resolutely, if it is to bring to a conclusion of both lawmak-
and violence.
In a far more unnatural combination than in the death in a kind of
mixture, these two forms of violence are in another institutionof the modern state, the police. this is violence for ends (in the rightof disposition), but with the simultaneous authority to decide these ends itself
within wide limits the right of decree). The ignominy of such an authority,
which is felt few because its ordinances suffice seldom for the
crudest acts, but are therefore allowed to rampage all the more in the
most vulnerable areas and thinkers, from whom the state is not pro-
law-this ignominy lies in the fact that in this the separationand violence is suspended. If the first is required to
prove its worth in to the restriction that it may not
set itself new ends. Police violence is U U ' ' ' ' I ~ ' ' ' ~ ' 'from both conditions. I t isfor its characteristic function is not the promulgation of laws but
the assertion of legal claims for any decree, and because it is at
the of these ends. The assertion that the ends of police violence are
identical or even connected to those of law is untrue.
the law of the really marks the
from impotence or because of the immanent connections within any legal
system, can no longer through the the empirical ends
that it desires at any to attain. Therefore the police intervene for security
reasons in countless cases where no clear when they arenot the citizen
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as a bru tal encumbrance a life regulated by or simply
which aclmowledges in the determined
by place and time a category that it a claim to critical evalua
tion, a consideration of the police institution encounters nothing essential at all.
Its power is formless, like its nowhere all-pervasive, ghostly presence inthe life of civilized states. And the may, in particulars, ,> . ,,, -
appear the same, it cannot be denied that their is less r 1 ~ ' , , ~ +
where they represent, in absolute monarchy, the power of a ruler in which
legislative and executive supremacy are united, than in democracies where their
elevated by no such bears witness to the greatest conceivable(lege11er atJon of violence.
All violence as a means is either or W_ W p
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feeling in every comr)romisc ClI. , IJ lJ lIl .o lIiLJlY, the
alienated as many minds from the ideal of a nonviolent resolution
conflicts as were attracted to it by the war. The pacifists are con
by the Bolsheviks and
a U l ~ ; I U ~ ~ l V H
cannot be concerned with parliamentarianism. For what parliament achieves in
vital affairs can only be those decrees that in their origin and outcome are
by violence.s any nonviolent resolution of conflict Without doubt. The rela-
persons are full of examples of this. Nonviolent IS
wherever a civilized outlook allows the means
and illegal means of every kind that are all the same violent may be
confronted with nonviolent ones as
p e a C ~ a b l l e l l e s s ,trust, and whatever else
subjective preconditions. Their objective manifestation, however, is determined
by the law the enormous scope of which cannot be discussed that un-
means are never those of direct, but always those of indirect solutions.
They therefore never to the resolution of conflict between manand man, but only to matters The of nonviolent
to goods. For thiseans opens up in the realm of human conflicts
reason technique in the broadest sense of the word is their most particular area.fu c o ~ ~ ~ a ~
exclusion of violence in
cant factor: thereis
no sanction for lying. on earthoriginally such a sanction. This makes clear that there is a sphere
human that is nonviolent to the extent that it is inaccessible to
violence: the proper of Only late and in a
peculiar process violence in the
on fraud. POl whereas the to its vic-
torious power, is content to defeat lawbreaking wherever it to show
itself and deception, itself no trace of power about it, was on the princi-ius ivile n W : t - unistlmenl in Roman and
confidence in its own
violence, no felt itself a match for that of all others. fear of the
latter and mistrust of itself indicate its declining vitality. I t begins to set itself
with the intention of sparing law-preserving violence more taxing man-
ifestatiol1s. I t turns to not out of moral considerations, but for
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fear of the violence that it might unleash in the defrauded party. Since such fear
conflicts with the violent nature of law derived from its origins, such ends arene> , ' , . , t , , , tp to the justified means oflaw. the of its
but also a diminution means. For, in fraud, lawrestricts the use of wholly nonviolent means because could produce reac-
tive violence. This tendency oflaw has also played a in the concession of the
right to strike, which contradicts the interests of the state. I t grants this right
because it forestalls violent actions the state is afraid to oppose. Did not
resort at once to and set fire to factories? To induce men to
reconcile their interests peacefully without involving the legal system, there is in
the apart from all virtues, one effective motive that often enough puts into
the most reluctant hands pure instead of violent means; i t is the fear of mutual
that threaten to arise from violent whatever the
be. Such motives are visible in countless cases of conflict
of interests between persons. I t is different when classes and nations are
in conflict, since the higher orders that threaten to overwhelm equally victor
and are hidden from the feelings of most, and from the
of almost alL Space does not here me to trace such orders and the
to which constitute the most
means. Vlfe can therefore only to pure means in
common interests
motive for apolitics as aUalU 5U
vate persons.
to those which govern peaceful intercourse between pri-
As class in them strike must under certain conditions be
seen as a pure means. Two different kinds the of
which have already been , -v. ' ' - ' ' ' ' ' ,
Sorel has the credit-from political, rather than consider-
ations-of having first distinguished them. He contrasts them as the politicaland the general strike. are also antithetical in their relation to
violence. Of the of the former he says: The of state
power is the basis of their in their the politi-
cians (viz. the moderate socialists) are already preparing the ground for a strong
centralized and disciplined power that will be impervious to criticism from the
opposition, capable and of issuing its mendacious decrees.
strike demonstrates how the state will lose none of its
how power is transferred from the to the how the
mass of producers will their masters, In contrast to this political
strike (which incidentally seems to have been summed up the abortive
German the general strike sets itself the sale task of
state power. I t nullifies all the consequences of every
possible social policy; its partisans see even the most popular reforms as bour-
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strike clearly announces its indifference toward materialby its intention to abolish the state; the state
group, who in all their
While the first form
an external modification of
as a pure means, is nonviolent. For it takes placeH ~ V Vto resume work following external concessions and this or that
I U l l l \ J . l J ~ ,ut in the determination to resume only a
enforced the state, an that this
the revolution appears as a
either for the sociologists or for the elegant amateurs of
this deep, moral, and genuinely revolutionary con-
no on of its cata-
consequences, to brand such a strike as violent. ven if i t can
said that the modern economy, seen as a resembles much less athat stands idle when abandoned by its stoker than a beast that goes
as soon as its tamer turns his nevertheless the violence of an action, , ~ , ' ' ' 0 ' ' ' ' ' 'no more from its effects than from its from the
of its means. State power, which has eyes for opposes
this kind of strike for its alleged as distinct from
actually extortionate. The extent to whichof
the general strike as sllch is capableof
diminish-Sorel has with
contrast, ani i ; \ . J l l U O ~ " l J 1 J ,more immoral and cruder than the akin to a
de, is the strikeby doctors, such as several German cities have seen. In this
revealed at its most repellent an unscrupulous use of violence that is positively1 - ' ' ' . J l I ; ; ~ ~ l ' U l l ' ' lclass that for years, without the slightest at
secured death its prey:' and then at the first abandonedof its own free will. More clearly than in recent class struggles, the mea ns of
have developed in thousands of years of the history of
m l , r n 1 , < > T C in their transactions consist
modifications to legal systems. they entirely on the
logy of between persons, to resolve conflicts case case,
the names of their states, peacefully and without contracts. A delicate task
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that is more robustly but a method of solution inis above that of the referee because it is beyond all
violence. Accordingly, like the intercourse of privateU i ~ n u ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ~has engendered its own forms and virtues, which were not
even though they have become so.all the forms of violence by both natural law and positive
problematic nature,
violence. every conceivable to
human not to of deliverance from the confines of all the world-
historical conditions of existence obtaining
lence is totally excluded in the
time the question of the truth of the basic
ends can be attained justified means,
if vio
H" C""'U"l1Y arises as to theby legal theory. I t is at the same
common to both
means used for just ends. How
would it if all the violence DO:5ed justified means,
and if at the same time a
different kind of violence came into view that certainly could be either the
or the unjustified means to those but was not related to them as
means at all but in some different way. This would throw light 011 the curious
ofa11lems to the possibility of
conclusive pronouncements on
it is never reason that decides on thet , ' t p_ ,n l1" ,< ,p r violence on the former and God on the latter. And
that is uncommon only because of the stubborn habit of
conceiving those
valid (which follows
ends as ends of a possible that is not only as generally
from the nature of justice), but also of
< l U l - , U V l h which, as could be contradicts the nature For
ends that for one situation are just, acceptable, and valid, are so for
no other no matter how similar it may be in other respects. The
nonmediate function of violence at issue here is illustrated by everyday
ence. As regards man, he is impel led anger, for PY,m1"n ip to the most visible
outbursts of a violence that is not related as a means to a n r p r f ) ; n r p end. I t is
not a means but a manifestation. Moreover, this violence has thoroughly
tive manifestations in which it can be to criticism. These are to befound, most l l S l 1 1 1 1 l 1 Uabove all in myth.
violence in its ~ r r ' n ( > n r ' ~form is a mere manifestation of the
Not a means to their a manifestation of their but first of all a
manifestation of their existence. The of Niobe contains an
of this. it appear that the action of Apollo and Artemis is
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a But their violence establishes a law far more than it
for the of one already Niobe's arrogance calls down fate
itself not because her arrogance offends against the law but because it
challenges fate to a in which fate must triumph, and can bring to aHow little such divine violence was to the ancients the
in which
fate with courage,
it with varying fortunes, and is not left by the legend without hope of one
a new law to men. I t is really this hero and the legal violence of the
native to him that the tries to picture even now in admiring the
miscreant. Violence therefore bursts upon Niobe from the uIlcertain, ambig
uous of fate. I t is not actually destructive. it a cruel
to Niobe's children, it stops short of the life of theirleaves more guilty than before through the death of the children, both
mute bearer of and as a boundary stone on the frontier
If this immediate violence in manifestations
proves indeed identical to it reflects a prob-
lematic on lawmaking insofar as the latter was characterized
above, in the account of military violence, as a mediate violence. At the
same time this connection further to illuminate fate, which in all casesand to conclude in broad outline the critique of the
latter. For the function of violence in is in the sense that
lawmaking pursues as its with violence as the means, wh t is to be e8tab-
lished as law but at the moment of instatement does not dismiss Y H J ~ U . ,
at this very moment oflawmaking, i t specifically establishes as law not an
end but one and intimately bound to it, under
the title of power. Lawmaking is power making, to that extent, an immedi
ate manifestation of violence. is the of all divine end
power the of all mythical lawmaking.
An of the latter that has immense consequences is to be found in
constitutional law. For in this the establishing of frontiers, the task of
after all the wars of the age, is the of all
lawmaking violence. Here we see most clearly that power, more than the most
extravagant m is what is guaranteed all lawmaking violence.
Where frontiers are decided the is not simply annihilated; heis accorded even when the victor's in power is complete. And
these are, in a demonically way for both to
the treaty i t is the same line that may not be crossed. Here appears, in a
primitive form, the same mythical ambiguity of laws that may not be in-
to which Anatole France refers when he says, Poor and rich
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are forbidden to spend the night under the I t also appears thatSorel touches not merely on a cultural-historical but also on a
truth in that in the all was the of the kings
or the nobles in short, of the and that, mut tis
so as as it exists. For from the point of view which alone can
guarantee law there is no equality, but at the most equally great violence. The
act of fixing frontiers, however, is also oflaw inanother Laws and unmarked frontiers at least in
unwritten laws. A man can unwittingly infringe upon them and thus
incur retribution. For each intervention of law that is provoked by an offense
against the unwritten and unknown law is called, in contradistinction to pun-
ishment, retribution. But however unluckily it may befall its vic-
its occurrence is in the of the not but fateitself once in its deliberate Hermann Cohen, in a brief
reflection on the ancients' of fate, has spoken of the inescapable
realization that it is fate's orders themselves that seem to cause and
this offense. To this of law even the modernof a law is not nr, , , , . , c r t>r.n
communities is to be understood as a rebellion against the spirit ofstatutes.
Far from inaugurating a purer
diate violence shows itself
the manifestation of imme-
identical with all and
the latter into of the
historical function, the destruction of which thus becomes
task of destruction poses again, in the last resort, the question of a pure immedi
ate violence that might be able to call a halt to mythical violence. Justas
in allGod opposes violence is confronted the divine. And
the latter constitutes its antithesis in all violence is lawmak
ing, divine violence is law-destroying; if the former sets boundaries, the latter
boundlessly destroys them; if mythical violence brings at once guilt and retribu-
tion, divine power only if the former the latter strikes; if the
the latter is lethal without blood. The of Niobe
maybe as an of this U U H ~ H 'on thecompany of Korah. I t strikes Levites, strikes them without warning,
without and does not stop short of annihilation. But in annihilating it
also and a connection between the lack of bloodshed and the
character of this violence is unmistakable. For blood is the of
mere life. The dissolution of violence stems, as cannot be shown in detail
here, from the of more natural which consigns the innocent,
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and unhappy, to a retribution that expiates the of mere l ife and doubtless also purifies the not of guilt, but of law. For with mere lifethe rule of law over the living ceases. M , r th l r violence is bloody power overmere life for its own divine violence pure power over all life for the sake of
the living. The first demands sacrifice, the second accepts it.This divine power is attested not only by tradit ion but is also found
in present-day life in at least one sanctioned manifestation. The educativepower, which in its form stands outside the is one of its manifesta-
tions. These are not by miracles performed by God,but by the moment in them that strikes without bloodshed and,
by the absence of all lawmaking. To this extent it is to call thistoo, but it is so only with to goods,
and suchlike, never absolutely, with to the soul of theof such an extension of pure or divine power is sure to provoke,
today, the most violent and to be countered by the argu-ment that taken to its logical conclusion it confers on men even lethal power
one another. however, cannot be conceded. For the
I kill? meets its irreducible answer in the commandment Thou shalt not kill.
This commandment the deed, just as God was the deed.
But justas it
may not be fearof
that enforces obedience, theinjunction becomes inapplicable, incommensurable once the deed is accomplished. No of the deed can be derived from the commandment. Andso neither the divine nor ,the for this can beknown in advance. Those who base a condemnation of all violent killing of one
person by another on the commandment are therefore mistaken. I t exists not as
a criterion but as a for the actions or commu-nities who have to wrestle themselves the of it. Thus it
was understood which expressly the condemnation of
in self-defense. But those thinkers who take the opposed view refer to a
more distant theorem, 011 which possibly propose to base even the com
mandment itself. This is the doctrine of the of which they either
or limit to human life. Their argumen- A ' d l J + , ~ J H Uin an extreme case by the killing of the op-
pressor, runs as follows: I f I do not kill I shall never establish the world domin-
ion
profess that
existence itself. As
of the intelligent terrorist. . . . however,of existence stands
indeed ignoble, itshows the the reason for the commandment no in
what the deed does to the but in what it does to God and the doer. Thethat existence stands than a existence is false and
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H H . L H U ' U O , if existence is to mean nothing other than mere life-and it has this
in the argument referred to. I t contains a mighty truth, if
Of life whose is readily analo-
to that of when are referred to two distinct spheres),
means the total condition that is man ; if the proposition is in-tended to mean that the nonexistence of man is more terrible than
the (admittedly subordinate) not-yet-attained condition of the just man. To this
ambiguity the above owes its plausibility. Man cannot, at
any be said to coincide with the mere life in no more than with any
other of his conditions and not even with the of his
person. However sacred man is that life in him that is identically present in
earthly life, death, and afterlife), there is no sacredness in his condition, in his
bodily life vulnerable to injury his fellow men. What, then, it
from the life of animals and And even if these were
could not be so by virtue only of being alive, in life I t might be well
worthwhile to track down the origin of the dogma of the sacredness of life
Perhaps, indeed it is relatively recent, the last mistaken attempt of the
weakened Western tradition to seek the saint it has lost in
of all commandments murder is no
counter because these are based on other ideas than the modernFinally, this idea of man's sacredness gives grounds for reflection that
what is here pronounced sacred was to ancient thought the
marked bearer of guilt: life itself.
The of violence is the of
this because only the idea of its
discriminating, and decisive approach to its temporal data. A gaze directed only
at what is close at hand can at most perceive a dialectical rising and falling in thelawmaking and law-preserving formations of violence. The law governing their
oscillation rests on the circumstance that all in its
weakens the violenceo n r 1 { , , , , of hostile counter-violence. (Various symptoms of this have
been referred to in the course of this study.) This lasts until either new forces or
those earlier triumph over the hitherto
found a new destined in its turn to of thismaintained mythical forms of on the of law with all the
forces on which it as they depend on it, finally therefore on the aboli
tion of state power, a new historical epoch is founded. If the rule of myth is
broken occasionally in the age is not so
remote that an attack on law is futile. But if the existence of violence
outside the as pure immediate V l n l P T l r P is this furnishes the proof
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that revolutionary the highest manifestation of unalloyed violence byman is possible and by what means. Less possible and also less urgent for
U l l W J V < ; U violence has been realized in
will be recognizable as
effects because the expiatorypower of violence is not visible to men. Once all the eternal forms are
open to pure divine which myth bastardized with law I t may manifest
itself in a true war as in the divine of the multitude on aBut all mythical is
too is the law-preserving administrative violence that
serves it. Divine which is the sign and seal ut never the means of
sacred execution may be called violence.
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