why violence works

[alice wellintown]

This outlook is implied by Mao Zedong's well-known aphorism that
political power "grows out of the barrel of a gun." Violence, in other
words, is the driving force of politics, while peaceful forms of
political engagement fill in the details or, perhaps, merely offer
post-hoc justifications for the outcomes of violent struggles. Mao
corrected Clausewitz by characterizing politics as a sequel to or even
an epiphenomenon of violence—a continuation of violence by other
means.


http://chronicle.com/article/Why-Violence-Works/140951/