Can There Be Non-Violent Political Action?

Abstract

The text argues for the irreducible violence of the abolition of violence. It
aims to show that this is not a paradox, for violence means something else
in both instances. We thus need to distinguish between violence and violence:
we need a ‘critique of violence’ in the sense that Walter Benjamin has
developed it (in his article with this title). The text will sketch a political
reading of Benjamin’s distinction between mythic and divine violence by
way of his example of education.