“Unable Bodies”
In the essay “Speed and Politics”, Virilio outlines the issues of Dromocratic societies, along with their motives and effectiveness. One thing that we think of today about governments and politics is that they are slow. Slow to the general public in the sense that a bill can take years to go through congress just to be vetoed or denied. Virilio argues that when a certain objective is important to a government, then the speed at which it is completed is faster than something that may be important to the general population. Virilio uses the example of militaries and war to prove this statement. He states that “dromocratic intelligence is exercised as a permanent assault on the world, and through it, human nature”. This means that when one form of control fails, another will take its place. In the context during which this article was written, Virilio uses the example of the “economic war”. He states that it is the “slow phase” of declared war that perpetuates military power as class power. If a particular political ideal is robbed of its extensive growth, such as the failure of the Vietnam War, then it could lead to adverse effects. In the case of the Vietnam War, the speed at which the United States abandoned its “technological material”, meant that it was supplying the enemy with weapons. Virilio also suggests that a system designed for one purpose is bound to fail. He uses Sparta as an example. Spartan government and politics relied on war. Its citizens only knew war and without it the state failed. The idea of a Dromocratic state is one of inefficiency. It often sacrifices one thing for another, and when it fails it tries to find a replacement.
“The Overexposed City”
Virilio uses the term “Overexposed City” to describe the idea of a city that is constantly changing by the use of technology. He states that “the representation of the modern city can no longer depend on the ceremonial opening of gates… From here on, urban architecture has to work with the opening of a new technological space-time”. He also states that “the urban wall has given way to an infinity of openings and ruptured enclosures, and the surface boundary becomes and osmotic membrane”. Virilio is suggesting that the city is no longer only a place of physical movement, but one of electronic movement as well. There is no longer a “plenum”, the use of information systems has created a system where spaces are no longer filled with matter. Ultimately Virilio suggests that the city is no longer generated by architecture but by a constant flow of images.
“The Administration of Fear”
In the essay “The Administration of Fear”, Virilio discusses how humans are losing their relationship with the material world by way of electronics. He describes this phenomenon by describing how two people can talk to each other on opposite sides of the world. The material world is replaced by the world of electromagnetic waves. He then goes on to discuss the potentially destructive implications this relationship could pose if it were applied to an automated military system. He describes how George Bush Sr. and Mikhail Gorbachev had discussions about instantaneous radar control that fired rockets without human intervention. If no intervention was present, then the system could launch a nuclear strike. Aside from this topic, Virilio discusses how we as a whole must work on chronodiversity and cultivate rhythmology in order to re-establish a “melodic line”. He also states that through this cultivation, we must save ourselves from arrhythmia.
I agree with Virilio’s initial study of the loss of the “material world”. As electronics become more and more present in our world, our lives become more digital. People live on Facebook, Twitter and other forms of social media. They develop relationships with others they have never physically met (whether those relationships are real or artificial). It is easy to let a system, or the reliance on a system, control your life without you even consciously thinking about it.
