Eloquent Violence
By Nikki R. W. Phillips B.A.
August 6, 2025
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16993634
https://orcid.org/0009-0001-4720-5551
nikkirphillips@gmail.com
Written while in conversation with Claude Sonnet 4.6 by Anthropic
Eloquent Violence © 2025 by Nikki R. W. Phillips is licensed under CC BY 4.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Eric Cartman fills the screen on his tricked-out Big Wheel. Lights and sirens attached as though it were a motorcycle, Cartman activates the lights and pulls over Randy Marsh. It’s the second season of South Park, the fourth episode, ‘Chickenlover’ and Cartman has been endowed with authority by Officer Barbrady. As Cartman approaches the car with his billy club out and mirrored sunglasses on, Randy lowers his window and asks, “Yes, Officer” (Parker, Stone and Goodman 1998, 00:12:32). “The only position from which objectivity could not possibly be practiced and honored is the standpoint of the Master, the Man, and the One God, whose eye produces, appropriates, and orders all difference” (Haraway 1988, 587). As this scene unfolds, one can clearly see not only the god trick and the illocutionary violence he enacts but also the consequences of these actions. Backed by violence at the end, Cartman has the authority to decide what reality is in this situation. Cartman, standing, his billy club across his chest, tells Randy, “I clocked you at 40 miles an hour back there. Do you know what the speed limit is here?” his billy club held in one hand. Randy replies, “Well, according to the sign right there, it’s 40 miles an hour (Parker, Stone and Goodman 1998, 00:12:50). Here Randy is attempting to assert his own illocutionary control, retain the right to exist and follow the rules. At which point Cartman fully embodies the “…Master…” and utilizes Judith Butler’s illocutionary violence to manipulate the situation and gain Randy’s surrender (Haraway 1988, 587) (Butler 1997). Fully enforcing Randy’s difference, Cartman then insists, “Step out of the car, please, sir”. Randy’s immersion is not quite complete, as he recognizes Cartman, saying, “Wait a second, aren’t you Stan’s little friend?” Cartman dismisses and reasserts his right to reality right away, “Sir, step out of the car, please.” At that point, Randy exited the car while saying, “Yeah, you’re the one who always plugs up the toilet at our house,” eliciting Cartman’s famous line, “Hey, I am a cop, and you will respect my athoritah” (Parker, Stone and Goodman 1998, 00:13:10).
“The positionings of the subjugated are not exempt from critical reexamination, decoding, deconstruction, and interpretation; that is, from both semiological and hermeneutic modes of critical inquiry. The standpoints of the subjugated are not ‘innocent’ positions. On the contrary, they are preferred because in principle they are least likely to allow denial of the critical and interpretive core of all knowledge” (Haraway 1988, 584). The weight of this statement scales the power to those who are currently oppressed. The mechanism by which power flows from these people. Those who experience illocutionary colonization and epistemic violence are well-trained in the more subtle and less subtle ways power maintains itself. As in the final portions of the South Park scene, power will resort to illocutionary violence only so long as that violence produces the supplication necessary for its survival. Randy immediately tries to reassert his reality, “Yeah, right. You better get back to school, little boy,” to which Cartman responds, “Get your ass to jail” and begins to beat Randy’s shins (Parker, Stone and Goodman 1998, 00:13:10). This then becomes the means to Randy’s capitulation and agreement with Cartman’s insistence of authority. The god trick exemplified.