Routine life runs on institutionalized legitimate power, not on brutality

Evidence

As the upshot of all these reflections on the theme of physical force, it has to be borne in mind that the widespread idea of an opposition or a one-dimensional polarity, existing between legitimacy and physical force, or between consensus and coercion, is misleading. This idea seems to be concerned with a bourgeois construction which parallels the problem of situating the exercise of physical force in the present, which we have just dealt with. Such a concept is part of the power-code itself, is therefore a prescription for conduct, and suggests that the power-holder should always strive for consensus before using physical force. Such a statement is much too simple for a theory of power and, above all, as a conceptual instrument for the analysis of the relationship between generalizations and the compatibility/incompatibility of media symbols and symbiotic mechanisms. — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 717 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Power conceals itself through intense effort, not through passivity — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 651; Ordinary people can commit extreme brutality under the right circumstances — Farrar, Straus and Giroux Ishmael Beah, A Long Way Gone- Memoirs of a Boy…, 1; Institutional power persists even in egalitarian settings that believe they disavowed it (+7 more)

Related

• Legitimacy and physical force are symbolically interlinked, not opposites (similarity 0.84)
• Normalized legal power shapes everyday life far more than brutality does (similarity 0.82)
• Institutionalized legitimate power outweighs brutality in social significance (similarity 0.82)
• Physical force mediates power’s symbolic and organic levels, differentiating political power (similarity 0.80)
• Physical force achieves effects largely free of symbolic preconditions (similarity 0.80)
• Power cannot self-realize but depends on societal-structural conditions for legitimacy (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Power cannot self-realize but depends on societal-structural conditions for legitimacy #corroborates (0.70)
• Legitimacy and physical force are symbolically interlinked, not opposites #corroborates (0.65) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 717
• Power conceals itself through intense effort, not through passivity #expands (0.60) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 651
• Institutional power persists even in egalitarian settings that believe they disavowed it #expands (0.60)
• Modern atrocity operates inside the law rather than through its suspension. #expands (0.60)
• Ordinary people can commit extreme brutality under the right circumstances #qualifies (0.55) — Farrar, Straus and Giroux Ishmael Beah, A Long Way Gone- Memoirs of a Boy…, 1
• State power depends materially on the bodies citizens lend it. #expands (0.55)
• Competence, not power, determines status in functioning societies. #qualifies (0.50) — Jordan B. Peterson, 12 Rules for Life An Antidote to Chaos, 910
• Discoursing on power differs fundamentally from being silenced by it #qualifies (0.50)