“Guns & Bombs” — Physical Violence
“The attacks on the World Trade Center illustrate that those who oppose us, rather than coming from another moral universe, have been schooled well in modern warfare. The dramatic explosions, the fireballs, the victims plummeting to their deaths, the collapse of the towers in Manhattan, were straight out of Hollywood. Where else, but from the industrialized world, did the suicide hijackers learn that huge explosions and death above a city skyline are a peculiar and effective form of communication? They have mastered the language. They understand that the use of disproportionate violence against innocents is a way to make a statement. We leave the same calling cards.”
—Chris Hedges, War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning
Chris Hedges’s critique is arresting in its recognition of how modern violence, even when wielded against Empire, mirrors the very tools and symbols of its domination. His use of “us” and “we,” however, warrants reflection. Writing as a Westerner to other Westerners, Hedges evokes a collective subject that both implicates and obscures the fractures within Empire. While his critique captures the spectacle of violence, it risks flattening the uneven dynamics of who wields power and who suffers its consequences.
Hedges’s insights resonate with the goals of AGAPE’s inquiry into Empire’s mechanisms of control and resistance. In its first iteration, AGAPE examined the dual fractures of Global Apartheid and Planetary Ecocide—the racial and ecological divides that sustain imperial hierarchies. Now, in this second iteration, we shift our focus to the tools that enforce these divides. This session begins with “guns and bombs,” the physical violence that communicates Empire’s will through destruction and repression.
Militarized violence operates across both time and space. Julian Go’s Policing Empires reveals how tactics honed in colonial peripheries return to the imperial metropole, a phenomenon he terms the “boomerang effect.” Yet this effect is not confined to geography; it also travels through history, as methods of control migrate from the colonies of the past to the neo- and post-colonies of the present. Frantz Fanon’s On Violence articulates the role of force in sustaining colonial domination and the necessity of confronting it. Finally, Floyd Merrell’s reflections on Capoeira offer a counterpoint, showing how resistance can evade the spectacle of violence by embracing fugitive, creative practices.
If you’re unable to review the suggested readings before the next session, the primer below provides key insights and context to help you follow and engage with the discussion.
The National Guard on Springfield Avenue in Newark on July 14, 1967.
The Boomerang Effect
"Tactical Imperialism in the United States 1950s– 1970s" from Policing Empires by Julian Go
"Cycles of Policing and Insurgency in Britain, 1960s– 1980s" from Policing Empires by Julian Go
Julian Go traces how colonial military policing shapes modern practices of repression, highlighting how tactics first employed in colonial contexts resurface in new forms. During the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya, British authorities employed mass internment, collective punishment, and scorched-earth policies to suppress dissent. These tactics returned to the metropole, influencing policing strategies in Northern Ireland and urban Britain, where racialized communities became the targets of stop-and-search policies, surveillance, and paramilitary-style crowd control.
The boomerang effect extends beyond space into time. Tactics designed to control colonized populations prior to “national independence” persist in the neo- and post-colonies, where they are deployed by successor states. For instance, curfews and forced relocations once used in British colonies now reappear in the Global South to suppress labor strikes, environmental protests, and peasant movements. As Go writes, “What happens in the colonies doesn’t stay in the colonies,” underscoring the enduring legacy of colonial violence.
This continuity reveals the adaptability of Empire’s tools. Whether wielded in the colonial past, the metropolitan core, or the neo- and post-colonial present, these tactics serve the same purpose: maintaining hierarchies of power and suppressing dissent. Understanding this dynamic is essential for resisting the violence of Empire in all its forms.
Fanon: Confronting Force with Force
“On Violence” from The Wretched of the Earth by Franz Fanon
Frantz Fanon’s On Violence lays bare the role of physical force in colonial domination. Colonialism, he argues, is not just an economic arrangement but a system of total control, enforced through the constant threat and reality of violence, a phenomena that is not only structural but also atmospheric. For the colonizer, the colonized are “the quintessence of evil,” justifying repression as necessary and inevitable. This worldview reduces entire populations to threats, erasing their humanity and legitimizing their subjugation.
To understand Fanon, we can draw upon the critical distinction between force and power. Force is the visible, immediate application of violence; power is the structure built upon it and the ambience it leaves behind, embedding domination into systems and norms and polluting the social atmosphere. Power disguises its reliance on force, presenting itself as natural and inevitable. Yet when power falters, force resurfaces, revealing its foundational role in maintaining control.
For Fanon, decolonization requires confronting force with force. “Decolonization is always a violent event,” he writes, a break that upsets the colonial order. Yet such confrontation always risks replicating the logic of domination.
Capoeira: Fugitive Resistance and Subversive Creativity
"Capoeira Becoming" from Capoeira and Candomblé: Conformity and Resistance Through Afro-Brazilian Experience by Floyd Merrell
Floyd Merrell’s reflections on Capoeira offer a counterpoint to Fanon’s emphasis on direct confrontation. Developed by enslaved Africans in Brazil, Capoeira is a martial art that conceals its combative potential within the guise of dance. Practitioners disguised their resistance as playful movement, evading immediate recognition and repression while cultivating strength, solidarity, and resilience. This practice embodies a fugitive logic, resisting domination without mirroring its violence.
At the heart of Capoeira is malícia, a philosophy of cunning and adaptability. The ginga, its foundational movement, appears playful and non-threatening, yet it positions practitioners for decisive action.
Questions for Reflection
As we begin this new phase of AGAPE’s journey, the lessons of Go, Fanon, and Merrell invite us to consider the interplay between force and power, domination and resistance.
How do tactics of colonial military policing resurface in neo- and post-colonial forms of repression, both within the metropolitan cores (the Green Zones) and across the peripheries (the Grey Zones) of Empire?
In what ways does the boomerang effect operate across both space and time?
What can Capoeira’s fugitive logic teach us about resisting Empire without replicating its violence?
How can we distinguish between the necessity of fighting force with force and the danger of reproducing the structures of power?
