General Discussion

I'm glad you agree it's important. (I'm used to my preoccupations causing many eyes to glaze over.) Like you, I think there is a strong causal relationship between structural violence and Trump landing in the oval office. I hate to use the word "elected" when referring to him - he lost the popular vote! There's another structural problem...

A few years ago I encountered a startling statistic. I'm not sure how it was calculated, nor am I sure I recall the source correctly, but I believe it was a report from UNICEF. The term in the report wasn't "structural violence," but it was close to that. The report said there are 10 million preventable deaths every year that can be attributed to "structural issues" with the global economy. That's World War II levels of fatalities every decade. It made me think of the Mahatma Gandhi quote, "poverty is the worst form of violence."

Right now I'm reading a fantastic novel (translated from German) entitled "Go, Went, Gone." It's essentially a story about refugees in Berlin, told from the point of view of a recently retired professor who takes an interest in the lives of these displaced people. The book contains extended musings about "the law" and the sometimes perverse results of its application, and notes that no one person can be held responsible for "the law." All suffering is terrible, but I think it's particularly hard to cope with when the question of who is to blame is murky.