Progressive Violence: Theorizing the War on Terror PDF
Preview Progressive Violence: Theorizing the War on Terror
Progressive Violence This book examines the role of collective violence in the achievement of solidarity, shedding light on the difficulty faced by sociology in theorizing violence and warfare as a result of the discipline’s tendency to idealize soci- ety in an attempt to legitimize the idea of progressive social change. Using the global War on Terror as a focal point, the authors develop this argument through the related issues of power, knowledge, and ethics, explaining the War on Terror in terms of the Anglo-American tradition of imperial power and domination. Exploring the victimage rituals through which society is brought together in the ritual domination and destruction of a constructed “villain,” Progressive Violence: Theorizing the War on Terror also considers the price of the liberal moral values in terms of which the global war on ter- ror is frequently justified, and the volume of “progressive violence” involved in advancing the cause of freedom. The authors use this case to theorize the general role of vicarious victimage ritual in the social genesis of political violence and sadism, and its calculated use by politicians to achieve their imperial aims. As such, it will appeal to scholars of sociology and social theory with interests in terrorism, violence, and geopolitics. Michael Blain is Professor of Sociology at Boise State University, USA. He is the author of The Sociology Terrorism and Power, Discourse and Victimage Ritual in the War on Terror. Angeline Kearns-Blain was previously Adjunct Professor of Sociology and Women’s Studies at Boise State University, USA. She is the author of Steal- ing Sunlight: Growing up in Irishtown and I used to be Irish: Leaving Ireland, Becoming American. Routledge Studies in Social and Political Thought 128 Critical Theories and the Budapest School Politics, Culture, Modernity Edited by John Rundell and Jonathan Pickle 129 Social and Political Life in the Era of Digital Media Higher Diversities David Toews 130 Towards a Hermeneutic Theory of Social Practices Between Existential Analytic and Social Theory Dimitri Ginev 131 Experiencing Multiple Realities Alfred Schutz’s Sociology of the Finite Provinces of Meaning Marius I. Benţa 132 Human Flourishing, Liberal Theory and the Arts Menachem Mautner 133 Rethinking Liberalism for the 21st Century The Skeptical Radicalism of Judith Shklar Giunia Gatta 134 Norbert Elias and the Analysis of History and Sport Systematizing Figurational Sociology Joannes Van Gestel 135 Progressive Violence Theorizing the War on Terror Michael Blain and Angeline Kearns-Blain For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com/series/ RSSPT Progressive Violence Theorizing the War on Terror Michael Blain and Angeline Kearns-Blain First published 2018 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2018 Michael Blain and Angeline Kearns-Blain The right of Michael Blain and Angeline Kearns-Blain to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record has been requested for this book ISBN: 978-1-138-49772-6 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-351-01810-4 (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by codeMantra We dedicate this work to the Nasomah, “The people by the deep water,” who lived at the mouth of the Coquille River on the Oregon Coast for thousands of years. Contents List of figures ix List of tables xi Acknowledgements xiii 1 Introduction 1 2 Imperial background and the US power elite 18 3 Political victimage ritual, evil, and the problem of sadism 51 4 Biopolitics of terrorism 81 5 Ethics of truth 112 Appendix 135 Index 153 List of figures 2.1 Empire, Victimage Ritual, and Biopolitics of Terrorism 19 2.2 Multi-Network Diagram of How the Power Elite are Drawn from Three Overlapping Networks of People and Institutions. The Power Elite are the Members of the Three Overlapping Circles. They are Encompassed in the Dotted Line Within the Venn Diagram. Source: By permission G. William Domhoff. Who Rules America? The Triumph of the Corporate Rich, Seventh Edition (McGraw Hill Education 2014) 43 3.1 Structural Analysis of Melodramatic Pattern of Meanings Implicit in Political Victimage Ritual. Source: Smith and Riley (2009:100–101), Jameson (2016) 58 3.2 Drones in Paradise. An Everyday Apocalypse, a contribution to 2016 Hieronymus Bosch 500 by Ivica Capan. By permission of Ivica Capan 2018 60 3.3 Percent President Bush’s Weekly Speeches Invoking “Evil” and “Terror” Terms in Relevant Political Contexts, January 2001–June 2008 62 3.4 Percent Annual US Presidential State of the Union Reports to the Congress Invoking Evil and Terror Terms in Political Context, 1790–2016 63 3.5 Index of PVR Intensity: Percent of Weekly Whitehouse Speeches Attacking Terrorists 65 4.1 Frequency of Peer Reviewed, Scholarly Articles in Sociological Abstracts Subject “terrorism,” 1960–May 2016 (n = 3565–May 2016) 86 4.2 Percent Total High Citation Journal Articles (>5) in Sociology Abstracts Published in ‘Terrorism’ Journals 1977–2016 (May) (Terrorism 1977–1991, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 1992, Terrorism and Political Violence 1988) 87 4.3 Subject Categories, “Political Violence” and “Terrorism,” Sociology Abstracts, 1952–2016 (May), ProQuest, Accessed 8 June 2016 87
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