On Violence

[John 6IX Breezy]

That is a fun one.  Perhaps a society will not reach or be stable at a form of loose consent unless it feels that it can enforce it's will, violently if necessary - so that the capacity for organized violence is in itself a central component of cohesion.  Similar to our tendency to foster and then export our violence to the periphery and hinterlands as a component of "civilizing" both the edge and the center?

In my view, this question requires a more nuanced discussion of what violence is. Because I agree that when a third-party "Leviathan" introduces a cost for aggression, there is a motivation to choose cooperation. It pacifies society. 

But I don't think violence is the best way to describe what is happening. because we still want to distinguish when that force is being applied rightly or wrongly, with wrongly being closer to my meaning of violence. For example, if the government oppresses everybody to stay in power instead of just the transgressors, I would call that violence. Or if the government punishes transgressors in a way that is more excessive that what is justified, that too is violent. But an impartial, appropriate, and just use of force deserves a different label.