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Founding Violence and the Creation of a Republic

Founding Violence and the Creation of a Republic. Kant ( The Perpetual Peace , 1795) argues if a country is a republic, then it will be very hesitant to go to war. Purpose of Thomassen’s article Examine the way we think about violence, especially the violence that founds a republic

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Founding Violence and the Creation of a Republic

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  1. Founding Violence and the Creation of a Republic • Kant (The Perpetual Peace, 1795) argues if a country is a republic, then it will be very hesitant to go to war. • Purpose of Thomassen’s article • Examine the way we think about violence, especially the violence that founds a republic • How does this relate to Birth of a Nation?

  2. Birth of a Nation Civil War – establish, protect the Republic Assassination of Lincoln Reconstruction – violence against the South KKK – Violence against Blacks to establish law and order, even a higher order

  3. Violence in Gladiator Maximus’s actions are only lawful in the sense of adhering to a higher law (p.146). Maximus speaks in the name of the republic, but today even the worst of dictators will spak in the name of democracy and freedom (p.146) Not certain the republic will return in an uncorrupted version (p.147).

  4. Violence in Gladiator • Justification of Violence • Pax Romana, long period of piece during the Roman Empire (Pax Americana)

  5. Violence and Republics “If even the best of republics require some element of violence for its institutions….we end up in the untenable position that it is impossible to criticize violence” (p.147)

  6. There is always an element of vanguardism, or “dictatorship,” involved in the transition to a republic or indeed in any emancipatory project. That is, those who are supposed to be emancipated from dictatorship may need some intervention from outside because they have been pacified by the dictatorship an so do not have the resources to free themselves.” (Thomassen, p.148)

  7. Other Themes • “The conviction that one good man truly can make a difference” (Coyne, p.41) • “May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof” John Adams, 1800.

  8. Gladiator • “we learn from the film that the institution of democracy and the rule of law only require an agent with the right attitude.” Thomassen, p.145 • The need of an “outsider” p. 145 • What guarantee that Maximus won’t become a dictator.

  9. Other Founding Violence The Patriot (2000) Salvador (1986) - justifies peasant revolution, criticizes U.S. intervention Battleship Potemkin (1925) Braveheart (1995)

  10. The Paradox of Violence, Law & Order • Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. – Paradoxes of American Hisotry • Experiment versus Ideology • Equality versus Tolerance of Inequality • Order versus Violence • Conformity versus Diversity • (Coyne, p. 12)

  11. Order versus Violence • Violence is an essential condiment of Hollywood fare, but the triumph of order over violence is arguably the archetypal American cinema narrative (westerns, war movies, police thrillers, gangster sagas and horror films)

  12. Films that criticize violence Syriana (2005) John Sayles’s Men with Guns (1997) Seven Days in May (1964) – argues against a refounding of a new republic via a military coup détat All Quite on the Western Front (1930)

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