Speed and Politics

PAUL VIRILIO, painter, stained glass maker, urban designer... At one point in his book he says the following: "The economic war that is sweeping the world today is nothing but a slowly progressing phase of the declared war, of the fast and short attack that will come; because there is no war." In this case, it is this economic war itself that consolidates military power as class power." According to Virilio, all structures of the society we live in are under the sovereignty of movement ability, attack, collision and deterrence, rapid advancement and infiltration. Medieval castle, cannons, armored war vehicles, mobilization of the proletariat both in the city and as soldiers, suburbs, slums, roads and traffic, then the atomic bomb, then missiles, nuclear warheads... Always faster, faster, the fastest... Military The speed society organized by the class and the engineers is a military society with all these actions; Politics is nothing more than the control of various speeds of action through totalitarian forms... A speed accelerating towards self-destruction... Speed and Politics dated 1977; The Berlin wall has not yet fallen, and the Gulf War is far ahead. But as much as it is a warning about the future, this book is also a reminder: "I spent my entire youth in very difficult conditions during the Second World War. I see myself as a child of war. Seeing the German troops, which the radio announced were far away, a few seconds later from my window, made me want to speed, It made me think a lot about the concepts of time and space... While the city of Nantes, where I lived during the war, was destroyed in a few seconds, the dense urban fabric seen from my window was replaced by distant hills... In my childhood world, the huge city symbolized continuity, stability, and "unchangeability" over time. When it disappeared, I started to question all the absolute truths; this is how my books came into being..."



Number of Pages: 144

Year of Printing: 1998


Language: Turkish
Publisher: Metis Publishing

First Printing Year: 1998

Number of Pages: 144

Language Turkish