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Political violence is organized violence on the top which creates individual violence at the bottom.
Emma Goldman
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Political violence is initiated by those in power, leading to violence among individuals in society.

Emma Goldman's quote highlights the relationship between systemic political violence and the resultant chaos that it fosters within society. It suggests that when those in positions of authority employ violence as a means of control or oppression, it inevitably influences the behavior of individuals, leading to a culture of violence that permeates the lower strata of society, where individuals may emulate or react to the violence they see from those above them.

Themes

Political ViolenceOrganized ViolenceIndividual ViolenceOppressionAuthority

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be used in a lecture discussing the impacts of political regimes on societal behavior.

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On rare occasions one does hear of a miraculous case of a married couple falling in love after marriage, but on close examination it will be found that it is a mere adjustment to the inevitable.
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To the indefinite, uncertain mind of the American radical the most contradictory ideas and methods are possible. The result is a sad chaos in the radical movement, a sort of intellectual hash, which has neither taste nor character.
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John Burroughs has stated that experimental study of animals in captivity is absolutely useless. Their character, their habits, their appetites undergo a complete transformation when torn from their soil in field and forest. With human nature caged in a narrow space, whipped daily into submission, how can we speak of its potentialities?
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Anarchism is the only philosophy which brings to man the consciousness of himself; which maintains that God, the State, and society are non-existent, that their promises are null and void, since they can be fulfilled only through man's subordination.
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If love does not know how to give and take without restrictions, it is not love, but a transaction that never fails to lay stress on a plus and a minus.
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