Public executions taught the people that violence could be met with violence
Evidence
It was as if the sovereign power did not see, in this emulation of atrocity, a challenge that it itself threw down and which might one day be taken up: accustomed as it was to ‘seeing blood flow’, the people soon learnt that ‘it could be revenged only with blood’ (Lachère). In these ceremonies, which were the object of so much adverse investment, one sees the intersection of the excess of armed justice and the anger of the threatened people. — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 125
Categorization
- XREF: Links to the reader’s interest in spectacle-of-power dynamics; also pairs with the ritual sacrifice theme of ‘On Sacrifice’ where public killing bonds a population to power. — connects to: Celebrated criminal spectacles deliberately drowned out political violence — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 435; Execution sites and torments mirrored the crime’s form and setting — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 97; Execution rituals were explicitly military displays of armed justice. — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 105 (+7 more)
Related
- Execution rituals were explicitly military displays of armed justice. (similarity 0.89)
- Public execution functions as a political ritual of power, not mere justice. (similarity 0.86)
- Public execution reactivates injured sovereign power rather than restoring justice. (similarity 0.85)
- The executioner personified the sovereign’s answering violence against the criminal. (similarity 0.84)
- Public torture was spectacle designed to display sovereign power publicly (similarity 0.83)
- Execution sites and torments mirrored the crime’s form and setting (similarity 0.83)
- Public executions failed to frighten the people and so reformers demanded their abolition (similarity 0.83)
- Public executions produced disorder rather than deterrence for the crowd (similarity 0.83)
- Rather than displaying sovereign power, executions staged a reversible duel between executioner and people (similarity 0.82)
- Sovereign power was recharged only through visible spectacle (similarity 0.82)
- Execution rituals forged solidarity between the people and petty offenders against power (similarity 0.81)
- Public executions let condemned criminals reversibly become heroes who mock authority (similarity 0.80)
- Public executions required a witnessing crowd to constitute their meaning and effect (similarity 0.80)
- Public torture and execution was among the most popular spectacles of eighteenth-century France. (similarity 0.80)
- State power neutralized spectacle by garrisoning execution squares (similarity 0.80)
Broader Connections
- Public torture was spectacle designed to display sovereign power publicly
#expands(0.85) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 83 - Ordinary people can commit extreme brutality under the right circumstances
#expands(0.72) — Farrar, Straus and Giroux Ishmael Beah, A Long Way Gone- Memoirs of a Boy…, 1