"People who attack others need rationalizations for doing so. We undermine those rationalizations"
About this Quote
Violence rarely shows up wearing a villain costume; it shows up with a story. Deming’s line is a scalpel aimed at the real engine of attack: the moral paperwork that makes harm feel permissible. “People who attack others need rationalizations” shifts attention from brute force to the quiet, self-justifying narratives that precede it - the excuses a person, a police force, a state, or a movement tells itself to stay respectable while doing damage.
The second sentence is the tactical thesis. “We undermine those rationalizations” doesn’t promise to overpower the attacker or outshout them; it promises to erode their legitimacy. That’s classic Deming: nonviolent resistance as psychological and cultural jiu-jitsu. The goal isn’t to win a brawl, it’s to make the brawl harder to sell - to the attacker’s conscience, to bystanders, to institutions that enable the violence. Undermining here means refusing roles that keep the rationalization intact: refusing to be reduced to “threat,” “criminal,” “enemy,” “degenerate.” It means insisting on visibility and moral complexity when the attacker needs simplicity.
The subtext is bracingly unsentimental about human nature. Deming doesn’t assume attackers can be shamed into goodness by compassion alone; she assumes they are invested in their own innocence. So she targets the narrative supply chain: fear, stereotypes, “security,” “tradition,” “order.” If you can interrupt the story, you can loosen the grip of the violence it authorizes - and expose that what’s being defended is often power, not safety.
The second sentence is the tactical thesis. “We undermine those rationalizations” doesn’t promise to overpower the attacker or outshout them; it promises to erode their legitimacy. That’s classic Deming: nonviolent resistance as psychological and cultural jiu-jitsu. The goal isn’t to win a brawl, it’s to make the brawl harder to sell - to the attacker’s conscience, to bystanders, to institutions that enable the violence. Undermining here means refusing roles that keep the rationalization intact: refusing to be reduced to “threat,” “criminal,” “enemy,” “degenerate.” It means insisting on visibility and moral complexity when the attacker needs simplicity.
The subtext is bracingly unsentimental about human nature. Deming doesn’t assume attackers can be shamed into goodness by compassion alone; she assumes they are invested in their own innocence. So she targets the narrative supply chain: fear, stereotypes, “security,” “tradition,” “order.” If you can interrupt the story, you can loosen the grip of the violence it authorizes - and expose that what’s being defended is often power, not safety.
Quote Details
| Topic | Ethics & Morality |
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