Senseless Violence

Liminality and Intertwining

Bibliographic Data

ID3971064
AuthorsJames Mensch (0000-0002-5352-8517, Charles University), James R Mensch (0000-0001-5644-0580, Charles University, corresponding author)
Year2017
Volume22
Issue6
Pages667-686
Publication date2017-08-18
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe European Legacy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1084-8770 • E-ISSN: 1470-1316
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/10848770.2017.1333312
OpenAlexW2622564759
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited9

The claim of this article is that the perpetrators of violence are “liminal” figures, being inside and yet outside of the world in which they act. It is this liminality, this existing on the border, that makes their violence senseless. Because of it, their actions can be understood in terms neither of the actual reality of their victims nor of the imagined reality that the perpetrators placed them in. Sense, here, fails, for the lack of a common frame. Liminality exists in a number of forms: economic, religious, and political—each with its potential for violence. What distinguishes political liminality is the scale of its violence. As Carl Schmitt shows, the liminal sovereign or ruler is both inside and outside the state, employing its means for violence even as he is unconstrained by its laws. I contend that this sovereign exists in a continuum with the practitioners of terrorist violence, who are also liminal figures. To analyze this liminality, I explore the intertwining between the self and the world that sets up the common frame that gives sense to actions. I then examine the causes of its breakdown

Criminology · Liminality · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Sovereignty · State of exception · Terrorism · Anthropology · Law · Political Theology and Sovereignty · Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence · Violence, Religion, and Philosophy

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