Genocide achieves its aim chiefly by destroying a community’s traditional elites.

Evidence

Among the resources of resistance that must be destroyed to make the violence effective (resources whose destruction, arguably, is the central point of the genocide and ultimately the measure of its effectiveness), by far the most crucial position is occupied by the traditional elites of the doomed community. The most seminal effect of the genocide is the ‘beheading’ of the enemy. — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 344

Categorization

• XREF: ‘Beheading of the enemy’ mechanism connects to the reader’s toolkit on how group cohesion is dismantled — parallels the role of elite destruction in subjugation studied in colonial and racializing contexts. — connects to: Ordinary genocide aims at community destruction, not total annihilation. — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 343; Genocide can be achieved by reinforcing communal structures rather than destroying them — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 348; OAS violence deliberately destroyed the communities it claimed to defend (+2 more)

Related

• Genocide can be achieved by reinforcing communal structures rather than destroying them (similarity 0.87)
• Ordinary genocide aims at community destruction, not total annihilation. (similarity 0.86)

Broader Connections

• Genocide can be achieved by reinforcing communal structures rather than destroying them #contradicts (0.90) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 348
• OAS violence deliberately destroyed the communities it claimed to defend #exemplifies (0.75)
• Atomized masses are deliberately fabricated by destroying mediating institutions #expands (0.72)
• Traditional societies and structures can collapse under external pressures #qualifies (0.72)