The nonviolent strategy, The Mechanics of Virtue, aphorism 287

287 The nonviolent strategy provokes the aggression by breaking with the habit or with the established rank, but does not fight back. This is half of a circuit, the stimulus without a response. Now, the observer must “fill in the blanks.” He himself must fill in this missing response, bringing forth himself the retribution that has been withheld. Police dogs and fire hoses provide an act of violence for which there has been no corresponding revenge: This is the observer’s opportunity to relieve himself of his own drive, an opportunity to dominate over the aggressor with a good conscience. Thus, the revenge lacking is filled in by a mass need to discharge aggression ... “an outraged nation.”

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