On Violence and War

 

Violence. The Dark Side of Antiquity /  News & Stories  / dctp

 

Professor Alexander Kluge talking to

Professor Martin Zimmermann

 

 

Kluge:

Someone who is excluded from society, from the community, he becomes aggressive. So revenge or an act of violence is actually a response to something that happened previously […]

 

 

Zimmermann:

[…] the purpose of proscription (ostracism of a person) was not only to eliminate these people but also to confiscate their wealth. And the murderers receive sums - translated conservatively by today’s standards - ranging from one to two million euros. So you can well imagine how easy it is to find murderers.

 

 

Zimmermann:

[…] and it can always be said that also the Roman construct “bellum iustrum” (a just war), that a war is always justified because the opponent has done something that harms us in some way. That is the construct.Just as todaya country’s own people or soldiers are sworn to violence, by adjusting anew the frame of reference they use for orientation and simply saying they have done bad things or want to harm us, we have to save our community, we have to save our own skins. And then this readiness to use violence arises. And the interesting thing is […], once the decision has been made, there’s no going back […]

 

 

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Today’s educational opportunities reveal the background to violence and war explicitly and extensively. A commitment with the prevention of violence for the sake of children and young people as its guiding principle is thus most welcome; such an awareness raising initiative is of social significance.

 

 

Professor Alexander Kluge

Filmmaker, television writer, author  

Managing Director dctp

Programmes/broadcasts on VOX, SAT.1, RTL