In the 1960s the FBI targeted the leaders of social movements for “neutralization”. To cut off the head was to kill the body. We learned from this and developed bodies that could function without a head. No longer could they destroy us by targeting a few key people.
But they also learned. Informants no longer look for leaders, they look for followers, those bright-eyed young idealists who will do anything to end this global cycle of suffering. Our diffuse structure has been met by a diffuse repression. To target at random, to incarcerate the least threatening among us, sends a message that is much more terrifying than the old method. They no longer seek to decapitate a movement, but to slash wildly at its body so that none of its parts are safe.