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On the spectacle of violence

Violence and repression are becoming more severe, and are symptomatic of the failure of Arab leaders to build a hegemonic vision they can use to control the citizenry.

By Maged Mandour
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AP/Press Association. All rights reserved.Since the eruption of the Arab revolt, the Arab world has been gripped with unprecedented levels of violence.

With 320,000 dead in Syria as well as the rise of ISIS in Syria and Iraq, and the massacres in Cairo, the Arab world has been witnessing a period of intense barbaric violence that has mainly been perpetuated by state or quasi-state actors. The spectacular nature of this violence demands attention.

In certain cases, it seems that violence is perpetuated for its own sake, not serving a higher political goal. Violence in the Arab world has turned into a spectacle, almost a show between those who inflict the violence and those who witness it.

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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0