On the Violence of Systemic Violence: A Critique of Slavoj Žižek

<p> This paper questions the extension of the common notion of violence, i.e., &ldquo;subjective violence,&rdquo; involving the intentional use of force to inflict injury or damage, towards social injustice as &ldquo;systemic violence.&rdquo; Systemic violence is altogether unlike subjective violence and the work of Slavoj &Zcaron;i&zcaron;ek illustrates that conceptual obfuscation in this regard may lead to an overly broad and facile justification of revolutionary violence as counter-violence to systemic violence, appealing to the ethics of self-defense. I argue that revolutionary violence is only justified to counter subjective violence inflicted or organized by the state. Thus I reject in conclusion &Zcaron;i&zcaron;ek&rsquo;s further defense of revolutionary violence as retributive and as &ldquo;shock therapy&rdquo; necessary to disrupt the old society.</p>