The Ticklish Subject The Absent Centre of Political Ontology

How would it be if what we take for human advance were simply a technological progress that literally leaves us out of its equations? What if Progress is not humanity striking out bravely towards the future, but an ultimately destructive force?

In a remarkable tour d?horizon, Paul Virilio paints a bleak picture of current scientific, cultural, social and political values. Art has succumbed to the techniques of advertising and in politics, the battle for hearts and minds has become a mere convergence of opinion. TV ratings have triumphed over universal suffrage. The events of September 11 reflect both the manipulation of a global sub-proletariat and the delusions of an élite of rich students and technicians who resemble the ?suicidal members of the Heaven?s Gate cybersect?. And, in this post-humanist dystopia, we are morally rudderless before the threat of biological manipulations as yet undreamt.

Paul Virilio was made director of the École spéciale d?architecture in Paris in 1975. He has written sixteen books including The Strategy of Deception, War and Cinema, Open Sky, and The Information Bomb.