Civilization is the project of rendering violence invisible and virtual

Evidence

Civilization, always already - historically - racially charged, may be seen accordingly as the undertaking to render violence impotent, as Keane points out, to soften its blow and lessen its impact. It is intended, in short, to vaporize violence, to render its traces virtual. The civilizing process (mission) is considered thus as the process of gradually increasing perfection (progress), of turning uncivil into civil states, of moving in the terms of (European) modernity (Hobbes through Kant) from barbarism, savagery, roughness, vulgarity or the state of nature into civilized, genteel, decent, in short, civil states. — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 234

Categorization

• XREF: Deeply continuous with Goldberg’s own earlier work on ‘racial state’; also recalls Elias’s civilizing process theory from The Civilizing Process. — connects to: Science-fiction violence encodes rage at unfulfilled collective fantasies.; Chemical and radiological violence becomes invisible cellular drama in poor bodies — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 28; National development narratives require actively rendering some citizen communities invisible — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 424 (+1 more)