The Arbitrariness Ring on the Chain of Free-Floating Violence
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‘Free-floatingly violent’ is one way of defining post-1990s everyday life. Characterised as being unpredictable, apolitical and reactive, the phenomenon of free-floating violence goes beyond the limits of such known types of violence as honor killing and family violence. It can take place anytime and anywhere. There does not necessarily have to be a prior history of hostility. Free-floating violence can be described as a chain with three interlocked rings. The exclusionary ring in the outermost refers to the micro-effects of global and neoliberal changes on the lives of ordinary people in the post-1990s. The arbitrariness ring in the middle is related to the roles of illegitimate state violence and the impunity culture. The innermost homosociality ring focuses on the inner dynamics of male homosocial groups such as hierarchy and collectivity. The locking-together of these rings, seemingly unrelated to each other when considered separately, shows that free-floating violence is a multi-dimensional phenomenon. According to this chain theory, global - local - social group dynamics merge and potentially lead to free-floating violence in the post-1990s. Setting out from this framework, my paper aims to focus on the arbitrariness ring in which I will argue that the state’s discourse of violence and tacit approval of arbitrary justice play a pivotal role in the emergence of the phenomenon. Accordingly, arbitrariness is critical in two ways. Firstly, the logic of ‘vendetta’ justice taking its root from the state’s partiality in using violence remains fresh in the societal memory of the population through everyday experiences. Secondly, arbitrary practices of justice feed individuals’ feelings of insecurity and mistrust towards the state, which results in the random attempts of taking law into hands in society. On this axis, the paper will examine the process that results in ‘state-isation’ of society on the road to freefloating violence.