[Marxism] Theory of Violence

[<daniel.evans920@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello all,

I just subscribed mainly because I wanted your opinions on the following.  I 
sent the message below to the Clausewitz Home Page to see what they think but 
they don't have a discussion section.

`Hi there,

I believe that there is an unfinished syllogism in the work of Clausewitz which 
if he had completed would have made him even more renowned today than he 
already is.

He made two statements about war, politics and violence when he perhaps should 
have made three.  He said: war is the continuation of politics by other means 
and war is violence.  As he was writing about war it is understandable that he 
did not think to make the concluding statement: violence is the continuation of 
politics by other means.

The implications are that all violence, every single example of it however 
seemingly insignificant, is an expression of or a continuation of an 
individual's, group's, organisation's or state's politics.  From wife-beating 
to rape to mugging to gang wars to battering protestors to terrorism to world 
war, all are explained by this theory.  Of course, it doesn't absolve the 
researcher from painstakingly getting to the roots of the perpetrators politics 
in each separate instance but it gives the framework from which to begin.

What do you think?'

I know it is not strictly Marxism but I'm pretty sure Marx and Engels approved 
of Clausewitz.  I would like to know what people think, whether it is an 
interesting theory or old hat or meaningless or too obvious to bother with in 
order to help me decide if it is worth taking forward.  I hasten to add that it 
is not a moral theory anymore than Clausewitz's original statemnt about war and 
violence was moral.

By the way, I was writing this e-mail before seeing the Politics of War thread.

Fraternally.

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