The Administration of Fear

A book-length interview in which Paul Virilio argues that fear has become an everyday landscape and that states have a stake in managing it.

Virilio describes a world that is itself limited, saturated and manipulated, with stock-market crises, undifferentiated terrorism and lightning pandemics producing a stressful claustrophobia. He argues that globalization has eroded the prerogatives of states, which now have to convince citizens that they can ensure their physical safety, and are tempted to orchestrate fear as policy. The "propaganda of progress" and the illuminism of new technologies supply further vectors for fear by manufacturing frenzy and stupor. Virilio reads the 2007 economic catastrophe as capitalism accelerating, not collapsing. The conversation is with Bertrand Richard and was translated by Ames Hodges. Semiotext(e) published it on 24 February 2012 as number 10 in its Intervention Series.

Virilio (1932-2018) was a French urbanist and theorist best known for dromology, the study of the logic and impact of speed. His other books include Speed and Politics, War and Cinema: The Logistics of Perception, Bunker Archaeology and The Information Bomb.