Terrorism & Theatrical Violence

How much of warfare is theatre, I’ve been wondering. When you line great columns of armed and armored men in matching costumes and march them in unison over varied landscapes to the sound of drums beating, what part of that is not pure theatre? Warfare is only secondarily destructive. It is primarily instructive. An act of violence is a threat, a warning, dare, a response: an act of communication. Dogs do it all the time: nips at each other’s heels to slow a runner, teeth bared and growling to threaten an intimidator. Wounds incurred eventually heal, though behavioral markers and delimiters, pack status, tend to last. Terrorism may be the same somehow: staged acts of violence to communicate about a specific cultural narrative of power and abuse. Violence is theatre and presentation and is designed to be high-impact and immediate. I saw over the weekend a police officer on foot dart across the street to intersect the path of a sprinting American equivalent of a chav, and knock him over with a “Don’t tase me, bro!” while on-lookers gawked, cheered and jeered. Police theatre in the streets of Baltimore. The narrative is clear in the context of this neighborhood. Afterwards more officers showed up and stood in the middle of the street for the next thirty minutes. Baltimore nightlife.

Articles With Similar Themes:

• The recent upsurge of monster movies
• Primitivist Terrorism
• Sex & Violence in Media
• Road Rage Now “Intermittent explosive disorder”
• Rudolph & Fairy Tales

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3 Reader Responses

1. Big Elk Says:
   April 20th, 2008 at 11:42 pm

   The principles of shaping are present in everyday interactions with the environment. Also, in the case of a human employing shaping to change another organism’s behavior, this procedure is used when giving instructions (such as “touch the bar for food”) is impossible due to the absence of language or communication between the two.

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaping_%28psychology%29

2. speedbird Says:
   April 21st, 2008 at 4:49 am

   Skinner rocks. Worth reading the story of what happened when he had the bright idea of trying /random/ reinforcement on pigeons…

   *

   Also worth knuckling down and having a go at the Iliad, if you’ve never tried. Remarkable description of these two enormous armies lined up on the beach, neither of them wanting the carnage that would ensue if they actually entered battle. Some time passes and eventually they decide to fight champions to decide the whole thing. And the great Achilles, of course, is sulking in his tent, something to do with not having quite as many golden tripods as his king. Needless to say not everything goes as planned…

3. alistair Says:
   April 21st, 2008 at 1:41 pm

   is love not that same battlefield? are we not riding into battle armoured in defense of some great loss…….?