Violence now becomes the only tool by which we can actually mediate social problems that should be dealt with in very different ways.

War provides jobs, profits, political payoffs, research funds, and forms of political and economic power that reach into every aspect of society.

Think of the question of mass incarceration. Think of the coding that the Republican Party has used for years, whether they're talking about Obama or blacks or Willie Horton.

Edward Snowden's real "crime" is that he demonstrated how knowledge can be used to empower people, to get them to think as critically engaged citizens rather than assume that knowledge and education are merely about the learning of skills - a reductive concept that substitutes training for education and reinforces the flight from reason and the goose-stepping reflexes of an authoritarian mindset.

Individual struggles merge into larger social movements.

Getting ahead cannot be the only motive that motivates people. You have to imagine what a good life is.

War has become a mode of sovereignty and rule, eroding the distinction between war and peace.