Eric Hobsbawm on Political Violence. The Rules of Violence (1969)
Political violence is certainly not a new thing and while it may be deplored the important question that is raised is in which societies does it appear, at what moment and in what context. In other words studying specifics may or may not help wider generalisations.
The late Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm wrote a brief essay on political violence that is collected in the volume Revolutionaries. Hobsbawm however does not write mainly about revolutionary violence which has certainly existed. The Chartist slogan of the 1840s was peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must.
‘older forms of violence may be increasing, because the established systems of maintaining public order, elaborated in the liberal era, are increasingly strained, and such forms of violence as direct physical action, terrorism are more common than in the past. The nervousness and disarray of of public authorities, the revival of private enterprise security guards and neo-vigilante movements are evidence enough…they have already led to a certain rediscovery of controlled violence, as in the return by so many police forces to a curious medievalism- helmets, shields, armour and all.
What is scarifying about modern American big cities is the combination of revived old and emerging new violence in situations of social tension and breakdown… nothing is more difficult for people brought up in a liberal culture, with its belief that all violence is worse than non-violence, other things being equal (which they are not).. but the worst kind is the violence that gets out of anyone’s control
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