Chaos is deadlier than tyranny. More […] multicides result from the breakdown of authority rather than the exercise of authority.
Matthew White, Atrocities: The 100 Deadliest Episodes in Human History, New York, 2011, p. xvii
Tag Archives: violence
Steven Pinker
The logic of the Leviathan can be summed up in a triangle. In every act of violence, there are three interested parties: the aggressor, the victim, and a bystander. Each has a motive for violence: the aggressor to prey upon the victim, the victim to retaliate, the bystander to minimize collateral damage from their fight. Violence between the combatants may be called war; violence by the bystander against the combatants may be called law. The Leviathan theory, in a nutshell, is that law is better than war.
Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, New York, 2011, p. 35
Thomas Schelling & Morton Halperin
Conflict of interest is a social phenomenon unlikely to disappear, and potential recourse to violence and damage will always suggest itself if the conflict gets out of hand Man’s capability for self-destruction cannot be eradicated–he knows too much! Keeping that capability under control–providing incentives to minimize recourse to violence–is the eternal challenge.
Thomas Schelling & Morton Halperin, Strategy and Arms Control, Washington, 1985, p. 5