Tracy Graves
Position Paper: Paul Virilio, Speed and
Politics
In his
treatise Speed and Politics, Paul Virilio attempts to trace the impact of speed and mobility
on modern civilization throughout history.�
Specifically, Virilios text examines the
effects of the accelerated motivity of weapons,
information, goods andnot least of allpeople.
Circulated (as goods are), functioning as channels of communication, and
pivotal to sustaining the autonomy and economy of the state, people are the
most critical element in Virilios analysis.
Movement
defines the life of the people, or masses, as Virilio
is wont to call them. Our cities, the crossroads of the masses, are themselves
emblematic in their positionalities at the confluence
of motion, of projectiles or trajectories of travel. The roads and waterways (and even the air)these
trajectories of travelfacilitate the mobility of people, goods and
information. The regulation of movement,
a governmental act, consists in the institution of fixed domicile (the mainstay
of power for the bourgeoisie), speed limits, restricted airspace and even
weapons systems to control movement of enemies both inside and outside of the
social system. The notion of a beyond
of experience has pushed governments to extend their power and control across
nations and territories, first and foremost by regulating the lives and habits
of citizens and conquered or colonized peoples.
For Virilio, government and military (both regulatory
mechanisms) are inextricably linked, that is to say, there is a constant
interplay between the two. The excess of
capital circulating inside of a territory or nation supports a military that in
turn both protects that capital and ensures new forms of
economic security. The nature of the
relationship between capital interests and military development operates in an
upward spiral, escalating into newer technology and faster speeds. But how does it affect the foundation of
society?
The
instruments of the aforementioned military mechanism to which Virilio returns time and again are the masses. He conceives of these masses as dromomaniacs (compulsive walkers), i.e. a multitude of passersby
who comprise a revolutionary contingent ontologically threatening to the
governmental apparatus at hand. The measure
of a governments power is in its control of the street where passersby idly
collect, awaiting the chance to become a part of the revolutionary mechanism,
movement itself. But these
masses, this pre-proletarian bulk, is just that: a collectivity, whose
will is malleable and ultimately in the hands of propagandists (including those
of the governmental apparatus). Through
processes of military and industrial proletarianization,
Virilios dromomaniacs
carry out the will of politicians (provided the governments regulations of
movement succeed). The masses are
subsequently made part of the very governmental apparatus that exploits their
desire for mobility, putting it to use in the securing and surveillance of
territory and the industry of war.
Perhaps
nowhere has the revolutionary street culture of the masses been harnessed with
such purpose and to such an extent as in Germany during the Nazi-period. The relationship between power and mobility
was made manifest in the countless parades and rallies which took place in the
streets and on the squares of the cities of Nazi-Germany. Probing Leni
Riefenstahls Triumph of the Will, can we locate the tenets of Virilios will to speed in the propaganda put forth by
the totalitarian state of Germany? How is
it manifest? Is speed to be found
strictly in the content of the National Socialist message? Or can we see speed as a mechanism of the
filmic apparatus as well? How is speed
used to affect a mobilization of the masses both within and through propaganda?
Is Virilios indictment of speed an oversimplification of the
problematic nature of the development of modern civilization? And what of the will-less masses he
describes? Is the proletarian faction
truly a tabula rasa on
which governments/propagandists can easily inscribe their own agendas?