Ground Zero

View other editions of Ground Zero.
View books by Paul Virilio.

An interesting and penetrating critique of "progress". - Rated
This is an insightful, bioethical analysis of history in which Virilio shows in some detail how techno-scientific solipsism has led to world domination not (just) by the Darwinian strongest but by the ethically rudderless madness of the strongest. A madness which has effectively reversed the old biblical sins of greed, envy, violence etc. He looks at the power of the media - the contemporary veneration of abnormal personalities, the role of advertising in the creation of behaviour, and how political power is obtained through optical rather than political correctness. And he is very eloquent on the role of modern technology, such as the internet, in effacing our personalities and capacity for critical thinking. A word of warning however: Virilio's ideas can be at times difficult to access. This is due to a number of factors: his often very academic register, the occasional use of words which are not contained in the (Chambers) English dictionary, and a presupposition of extensive intellectual knowledge on the reader's part. (His extensive analysis of capitalism's colonisation of art and artists, for example, assumes a wide awareness of a variety of art-forms both past and present.) His explorations are most interesting and relevant though: such forthright criticisms, analyses and resistance of so-called progress being most necessary at this point in time.