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Von: CTHEORY EDITORS <[email protected]>
Betreff: Event-scene 97 - Terrorism of Viral Power
An: [email protected]
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CTHEORY THEORY, TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE VOL 24, NO 3
Event-scene 97 09/18/01 Editors: Arthur and Marilouise Kroker
_____________________________________________________________________
Terrorism of Viral Power
========================
~Arthur and Marilouise Kroker~
The 20th century took place under the sign of nuclear superpower: a
cold war with bloc to bloc political confrontations; a military
rhetoric of graduated escalating respnses; a strangely comforting
illusion of "mutually assured destruction." Deterrence was
everywhere. Dissuasion was the code. A bored culture living in the
shadowland of apocalypse now.
That ended September 11th. The field of power flipped. The triumphant
era of the last superpower suddenly gave way to the contagious logic
of viral power. In place of the certainty principle of nuclear
stalemate, there emerges now the radical uncertainty of the terrorism
of micro-power. The always suspended fantaticism of technological
holocaust is challenged by the fanaticism of religious zealotry.
The logic of deterrence no longer functions. Deterrrence only works
in a deadly game in which adversaries have a primary interest in
preserving their own lives. Sacrificing one's own life is the first
gambit, and real psychological fuel of suicide commandos.
Dissuasion is inoperative. Again, the code of dissuasion is
intimately linked to a politics founded on preserving territory.
However, viral power is terroristic precisely because it occupies
only the imaginary territory of symbolic exchange. The religious
ecstasy of a sudden, unexpected, devastating strike against the
symbolic capital of the American empire: the trinity of the World
Trade Center, Pentagon and the airlines of America.
The terrorism of the new age of viral power has these symbolic
qualities:
It is a micro-power, not a superpower.
It is low tech, not high tech--and thus invisible to the optical
scanners of the ruling technological regime. Paradoxically, the
(technological) weakness of viral power is its strength.
It is subterranean, secretive--driven by a crusading spirit equal to
the religious zeal of the Middle Ages. Breaking the rules of
publicity culture, it claims no responsibility and thus speaks
clearly to the cultural imagination of the suppressed and powerless
everywhere.
It is a matter of biological violence, not physics. Flowing invisibly
through the rhetorical screen of the 'anti-ballistic missile system,'
viral power adopts the strategy of the attacking parasite: invading
the body of the host (the American homeland), bleeding its tactical
intelligence (those flight schools in Florida), circulating in its
commercial bloodstream (American airlines), and imploding in a
violent fatal metastasis that has as its aim the infiltration of the
mediascape through its apocalyptic effects. Viral power avoids
conflict with the real military assests of the host nation because
its actual intention is a strategic media strike. Viral power is
understandable only in the language of the media: the twin spectacles
of sadness and terror; the doubled language of fascination and dread.
In the days ahead, the media spectacle will shift to the viral
language of rage and revenge.
Tragically, the real missiles were those American people taken
hostage in the air. The real targets were not hardened missile silos,
but the dominant symbols of American power. The real terrorism was
the destabilization of the American government. The real war is the
coming war on civil liberties as the price for combating terrorism.
The real 'ground zero' was provoking America to acts of vengeance
that will only fast-feed the future rage of viral power. The scenario
of terrorism, then, as a mutating virus that copies itself to
American rage on its way to revenge against the host-scapegoat.
Viral power goes into the sea, the sky, the earth. It cannot be
defeated by the normal methods of nuclear warfare. It can only be
copied.
The virus of terrorism is about to enter the American bloodstream,
taking democracy hostage. Listen to House of Representatives Minority
Leader Richard Gephardt:
"We are in a new world. We have to rebalance freedom and
security. We can't take away people's civil liberties. But we're
not going to have all the openness and freedom we have had."
The implosion of American democracy, then, as the ultimate objective
of the suicide commandos. The 'war on terrorism' may have finally
begun, but the first casualty may well be American freedom as it was
envisioned before September 11, 2001.
_____________________________________________________________________
Arthur and Marilouise Kroker are the editors of CTHEORY.
_____________________________________________________________________
* CTHEORY is an international journal of theory, technology
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