There is the emergence of a militarized society that now organizes itself for the production of violence. A society in which the range of acceptable opinion inevitably shrinks.
Violence now becomes the only tool by which we can actually mediate social problems that should be dealt with in very different ways.
There is a need for subjects who find intense pleasure in commodification of violence and a culture of cruelty.
As the welfare state is hollowed out, a culture of compassion is replaced by a culture of violence, cruelty and disposability.
Under the interlocking regimes of neoliberal power, violence appears so arbitrary and thoughtless that it lacks the need for any justification, let alone claims to justice and accountability. It is truly as limitless as it appears banal.
The propensity to avoid moral considerations was producing not simply a politically illiterate and authoritarian society, but one that was increasingly saturated in violence and a culture of cruelty. Needless to say, all of these forces intensified the increasing militarization and corporatization of higher education, along with the privatizing of everyday life.
Once ignorance is weaponized, violence seems to be a tragic inevitability.
We need to remember that education can be both a basis for critical thought and a site for repression, which destroys thinking and leads to violence.
I also think that one of the things we often fail to realize is that that kind of violence is now legitimated in multiple public spheres.
Within the existing neoliberal historical conjuncture, there is a merging of violence and governance and the systemic disinvestment in and breakdown of institutions and public spheres that have provided the minimal conditions for democracy.
The architecture of war and violence is now matched by a barrage of goods parading as fashion.
Violence comes in many forms and can be particularly disturbing when confronted in an educational setting if handled dismissively or in ways that blame victims.
