Conversation

An constant feature of political history is the use of exile for conflict management. Like Napoleon in Elba/St. Helena. It’s a major theme in both the Ramayana and Mahabharata, and iirc in the Homeric epics as well. Funny with all this exit/voice talk we don’t talk exile too.
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A revealing wrinkle is exile with an extra condition of invisibility. In the Mahabharata, the exile is 12 years, followed by a 13th year where the exiled characters had to remain incognito. If they were discovered, they’d be thrown back into exile for another 12. Why?
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The point of exile is to neuter rival political authority without creating a problematic martyr. Enforced invisibility also protects exile imposers from the enemies campaigning to raise support as the rile is ending. They have to start from zero. It’s a campaign restriction idea.
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In modernity, literal exile is limited to dictators fleeing countries after being deposed and occasionally returning. This is a sideshow. In liberal democracies, exile = parties being out of power. Twist is, it’s not just the leaders: their entire mass base of support is exiled.
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