The Boundaries of the “We:” Cruelty, Responsibility and Forms of Life

Abstract

This paper establishes a dialogue between the later works of Wittgenstein, those of Cavell and the novels of J. M. Coetzee concerning the problem of violence, authority and the authoritative voice. By drawing on J. M. Coetzee's Waiting for the Barbarians and Diary of a Bad Year, the paper discusses lessons and insights on the nature of violence and the ways in which it can be accepted as “normal.” The term “normalization” is used in order to show how violence and cruelty can become a “form of life” (Ludwig Wittgenstein) that develops according to its own actors, cultural practices and legitimacies (Stanley Cavell and, by implication, Richard Rorty).