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Raymond Williams

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Raymond Williams
Raymond Williams

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This chapter is in the book On Violence

keywords181KeywordsRAYMOND WILLIAMSViolence is often now a di≈cult word, because its primary sense is of physicalassault, as in ‘‘robbery with violence,’’ yet it is also used more widely in ways thatare not easy to define. If we take physical assault as sense (i) we can take a cleargeneral sense (ii) as the use of physical force, including the distant use ofweapons or bombs, but we have then to add that this seems to be specialized to‘‘unauthorized’’ uses: the violence of a ‘‘terrorist’’ but not, except by its oppo-nents, of an army, where ‘‘force’’ is preferred and most operations of war andpreparation for war are described as ‘‘defence’’; or the similar partisan rangebetween ‘‘putting under restraint’’ or ‘‘restoring order,’’ and ‘‘police violence.’’We can note also a relatively simple sense (iii), which is not always clearlydistinguished from (i) and (ii), as in ‘‘violence on television,’’ which can includethe reporting of violent physical events but indicates mainly the dramatic por-trayal of such events.The di≈culty begins when we try to distinguish sense (iv), violence as threat,and sense (v), violence as unruly behavior. Sense (iv) is clear when the threat is ofphysical violence, but it is often used when the real threat, or the real practice, isunruly behaviour. The phenomenon known as ‘‘student violence’’ includedcases in senses (i) and (ii), but it clearly also included cases of sense (iv) andsense (v). The emotional power of the word can then be very confusing.It is a longstanding complexity. There has been obvious interaction betweenviolence and violation, the breaking of some custom or some dignity. . . . This ispart of the complexity. But violence has also been used in English, as in the Latinfor intensity or vehemence; ‘‘marke me with what violence she first lov’d theMoore’’ (Othello, II, i); ‘‘violence of party spirit’’ (Coleridge, 1818). There was aninteresting note in 1696: ‘‘violence . . . figuratively spoken of Human Passionsand Designs, when unruly, and not to be govern’d.’’ It is the interaction of thissense with the sense of physical force that underlies the real di≈culties of senses(iv) and (v); a sense (vi), as in ‘‘violently in love,’’ is never in practice misun-derstood. But if it is said that the State uses force, not only in senses (i) and (ii)but more critically in sense (iv)—the threat implied as the consequence of anybreach of ‘‘law and order’’ as at any time or in any one place defined—it isobjected that violence is the wrong word for this, not only because of the sense of‘‘authorized’’ force but because it is not ‘‘unruly.’’ At the same time, questions ofwhat it is to be ‘‘unruly’’ or ‘‘not to be govern’d’’ can be side-stepped. It is within

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keywords181KeywordsRAYMOND WILLIAMSViolence is often now a di≈cult word, because its primary sense is of physicalassault, as in ‘‘robbery with violence,’’ yet it is also used more widely in ways thatare not easy to define. If we take physical assault as sense (i) we can take a cleargeneral sense (ii) as the use of physical force, including the distant use ofweapons or bombs, but we have then to add that this seems to be specialized to‘‘unauthorized’’ uses: the violence of a ‘‘terrorist’’ but not, except by its oppo-nents, of an army, where ‘‘force’’ is preferred and most operations of war andpreparation for war are described as ‘‘defence’’; or the similar partisan rangebetween ‘‘putting under restraint’’ or ‘‘restoring order,’’ and ‘‘police violence.’’We can note also a relatively simple sense (iii), which is not always clearlydistinguished from (i) and (ii), as in ‘‘violence on television,’’ which can includethe reporting of violent physical events but indicates mainly the dramatic por-trayal of such events.The di≈culty begins when we try to distinguish sense (iv), violence as threat,and sense (v), violence as unruly behavior. Sense (iv) is clear when the threat is ofphysical violence, but it is often used when the real threat, or the real practice, isunruly behaviour. The phenomenon known as ‘‘student violence’’ includedcases in senses (i) and (ii), but it clearly also included cases of sense (iv) andsense (v). The emotional power of the word can then be very confusing.It is a longstanding complexity. There has been obvious interaction betweenviolence and violation, the breaking of some custom or some dignity. . . . This ispart of the complexity. But violence has also been used in English, as in the Latinfor intensity or vehemence; ‘‘marke me with what violence she first lov’d theMoore’’ (Othello, II, i); ‘‘violence of party spirit’’ (Coleridge, 1818). There was aninteresting note in 1696: ‘‘violence . . . figuratively spoken of Human Passionsand Designs, when unruly, and not to be govern’d.’’ It is the interaction of thissense with the sense of physical force that underlies the real di≈culties of senses(iv) and (v); a sense (vi), as in ‘‘violently in love,’’ is never in practice misun-derstood. But if it is said that the State uses force, not only in senses (i) and (ii)but more critically in sense (iv)—the threat implied as the consequence of anybreach of ‘‘law and order’’ as at any time or in any one place defined—it isobjected that violence is the wrong word for this, not only because of the sense of‘‘authorized’’ force but because it is not ‘‘unruly.’’ At the same time, questions ofwhat it is to be ‘‘unruly’’ or ‘‘not to be govern’d’’ can be side-stepped. It is within

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