AFTER VIOLENCE: 3R, RECONSTRUCTION, RECONCILIATION ...

term. This, in turn opens for two new, well-known scenarios:
Traumatization done to somebody else. Y may find it too
risky to inflict a trauma on X; X may simply be too powerful. How
about Z, lower down on the pecking order,/34/ and a chain of
violence winding downwards through social space, time and space?
Traumatization done by somebody else. If X has to be
traumatized, there is also the possibility that W, still more
powerful, can do so, opening for the possibility of a chain of
violence winding upwards in social space, and through time and
space. A special case is known as "punishment", W is the
"authority" entitled to inflict pain, trauma, not thereby
releasing own guilt since the authority is guilt-free. Others, V
and U, may doubt this and do the same unto W. And so on./35/
What is the purpose of symmetry and balance? Closure, not to
the conflict, that requires resolution, but to the violence. Not
love, not hatred either. The war is over. Punctum finale.
Even if violence carries its benefits, including the
exhilarating risk of being killed as the price one has to pay for
the right to kill others (who are willing to pay the same price
for the same right), there are limits to violence. Duels among
nobles may eliminate a whole social class. Vendettas between two
families may eliminate both. The incredibly high level of
violence in Colombia no doubt has deprived the country of much
potential leadership. The same goes for many other Latin American
countries where the victims were small trade union and cooperative
leaders. Nihil violentum durabile, no violence is for ever, they
say. Evidently some people were/are afraid that this is not the
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