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The Administration of Fear
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A new interview with the philosopher of speed, addressing the ways in which technology is utilized in synchronizing mass emotions.
We are living under the administration of fear: fear has become an environment, an everyday landscape. There was a time when wars, famines, and epidemics were localized and limited by a certain timeframe. Today, it is the world itself that is ...more
We are living under the administration of fear: fear has become an environment, an everyday landscape. There was a time when wars, famines, and epidemics were localized and limited by a certain timeframe. Today, it is the world itself that is ...more
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Interesting but again I have to question the constant density up of language in philosophy and phenomenology. We're humans, not penguins - no need to puff up our words to show how smart we are - it's just an irritating way of filtering out the people who actually should read this sort of work.
Interesting Q & A with a dromologist re: relationship of speed and society. Uninhabitable speeds of technology have unexpected and disruptive consequences, possibly in spite of the facile nature with which people interact with social media. Instantaneous, total communication has not necessarily put an end to history, but made it merely complementary to the ability for a social group to communicate certain ideas at a certain rate of speed. Virilio sees shared, emotionally-charged civic
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In 90 short pages, this interview with Virilio captured in words everything that I couldn't express that causes my anxiety and unease about the postmodern world. If you've ever felt overwhelmed by the speed of information, helpless by your inability to act on it, and overwhelmed by its unending nature, this book will let you know why. The only thing it doesn't know: if there's anything we can REALLY do about it.
Such a thought provoking book. I do wish I was just a little bit brighter though. I'm not sure I was intellectually up to the task of fully appreciating this.
An excellent interview - the notion of fear and terror as something propagated by immediacy and the speed at which things (like communication) occur. Well worth reading.
Virilio's theme of the compression of space and time with speed, and a theory of relativity for politics. Speed is anathema for reflection leaving only emotion in the present.
"This first regime consisted of the standardization of products and opinions. The second, current regime is comprised of the synchronization of emotions, ensure the transition from a democracy of opinion to a democracy of emotion" (p.31).
"This first regime consisted of the standardization of products and opinions. The second, current regime is comprised of the synchronization of emotions, ensure the transition from a democracy of opinion to a democracy of emotion" (p.31).
Everyone should read this.
This is the most paranoid Virilio text ever. His opinion on progress is always interesting to read, which somehow raises more questions on the relation between speed, acceleration and progress.
A fascinating little read, this is transcription of an interview of Paul Virilio by Bertrand Richard, looking at the fear as a result of globalisation, hyper-capitalism and the acceleration of reality. It's a very dense book and I expect it would help to have a background in the subject matter (something I don't have), but there's plenty of food for thought. I found the discussion of rhythms particularly interesting, and the idea that we need to develop a political economy of speed.
I dont always get my book recommendations from Warren Ellis, but when I do, its often something like this, a 90-page interview from 2007 with philosopher/cultural theorist/urbanist Paul Virilio, in which he explains how fear has become an environment, generated in part by globalization and the acceleration of technology and everyday life, to the point that governments and leaders now find themselves in a position to manage that fear rather than do anything to alleviate it. Like most books from
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This is the second book I've read by Paul Virilio. The first was "War and Cinema". What I liked about the other book was it's introduction and conclusion, I found the body of the book to be a bit scattered and I felt like Virilio had a hard time proving anything or making a finite case for anything. It seemed more like a random dumping of facts. I found this book to be even worse. As an interview, the interviewer posed certain questions to Virilio, and he would somehow go off on all sorts of
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Grand old man of urban studies, war and accelerated culture, Paul Virilio is still producing new books at the ripe old age of 79 - though he was actually 78 when this one came out in 2010. It is still only available in French, published by Textuel in Paris, at the moment and not scheduled to be translated into English as yet. This new volume is a series of conversations with Bertrand Richard (who keeps his words to a minumum) and is chock full of everything from Virilio's views on Facebook to
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Easiest to understand of all Virilio I have read. Straight forward interview that allows the reader to both see the simple answers to all questions asked but also get a sense of how the intelligentsia attempts to pick apart and analyze his thoughts and ideas. Central thesis is how we are moving toward instantaneous global affect and that may not be a good thing. I tend to agree and hope we find a way to slow down and truly understand life rather than speed ahead to the next accident. Highly
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I agree that speed and magnitude are significant in contemporary society, and that studying it through these lenses can illuminate something insightful, I don't think they are the factors that determine the world in which I want to live. Virilio seems to claim that we should operate at a more appropriate speed, rather than critically rethink society as a whole. Calling himself "revelationary" rather than "revolutionary" positions him very comfortably in this world as a an armchair academic.
An interview of Paul Virilio conducted by Bertrand Richard. These are comments on how globalization and technology are speeding up the world, and this changes how humans experience fear. His overall judgment is that there used to be a cultural assumption that fear is childish and undesirable, but today, politicians and media professionals send the message that we should all be afraid all the time.
A meaningful and accessible interview of Paul Virilio by Bertrand Richard, Virilio provides further insight into his concerns around globalization, technology, and the production of fear at the speed of light through the dromosphere. A need for a university of disaster and a studying of chronopolitics of instantaniety is further reinforced.
As always, Virilio is stimulating. He is an alarmist. He is what he terms a 'revelationary'. He reveals rather than foments revolution. His vision of the shrinkage of space and the acceleration of time speaks to our fears of homology and surveillance and Eco-collapse and violence and so on and so on. His analysis of contemporary conditions derives from an architectural perspective.
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“The contemporary sedentary is someone who feels at home everywhere, thanks to cellphones, and the nomad is someone who does not feel at home anywhere, someone who is excluded, ostracized.”
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“Speed now illuminates reality whereas light once gave objects of the world their shape.”
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