Wednesday, September 2, 2015

the sound of minds slamming shut (or, cognitive dissonance) revisited

law is a violent institution,
and we expect it to protect us from violence.
("war is peace")
how is that supposed to work?

maybe, if our society is so terribly violent (it is)
and if we want that to change (do we?),
we might need to address the issue in a different way.

from the DOJ:
We define domestic violence as a pattern of abusive behavior in any relationship that is used by one partner to gain or maintain power and control over another intimate partner. Domestic violence can be physical, sexual, emotional, economic, or psychological actions or threats of actions that influence another person. This includes any behaviors that intimidate, manipulate, humiliate, isolate, frighten, terrorize, coerce, threaten, blame, hurt, injure, or wound someone.

why should that definition not also apply to institutions of societal control?