ABSTRACT
In the contemporary world there are two types of systemic, generalized violence: the violence of total state order, and the violence of unbridled economic competition. They roughly correspond to the global division of power between East and West. In the first case, the organization of violence is despotic: It stems from the will of an autocrat or from a party-state apparatus. In the second case, violence is a function of the commodification of life, stemming from market systems and their contradictions. The economy was streamlined and forcefully denationalized. The adoption of ultraliberal economic policies by the power holders produced similar effects. In their hands, economics became a self-conscious attempt to dissolve previous social loyalties and identities. The government made clear that the economic measures it intended to apply would restore a lost productivity and an eroded work discipline. The labor unions and their leaders were put back in their place.
