“All political institutions are manifestations and materializations of power; they petrify and decay as soon as the living power of the people ceases to uphold them. This is what Madison meant when he said, ‘all governments rest on opinion,’ a statement that is no less true for the various forms of monarchies than it is for democracies. The strength of opinion, that is, the power of the government, is ‘in proportion to the number with which it is associated’ (and tyranny, as Montesquieu discovered, is therefore the most violent and the least powerful among the forms of government).”
— Hannah Arendt, A Special Supplement: Reflections on Violence
Tagged: Power Politics, Violence
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A Special Supplement: Reflections on Violence nybooks.com

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