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Pure War
"Pure war" is the name of the invisible war that technology is waging against humanity. In this dazzling dialogue with Sylvere Lotringer, Paul Virilio for the first time displayed the whole range of his reflections on the effect of speed on our civilization and every one of them has been dramatically confirmed over the years. For Virilio, the foremost philosopher of speed, the "technical surprise" of World War I was the discovery that the wartime economy could not be sustained unless it was continued in peacetime. As a consequence, the distinction between war and peace ceased to apply, inaugurating the military-industrial complex and the militarization of science itself.
Every new invention casts a long shadow that we are generally unwilling to acknowledge in the name of the invention of automobiles inaugurated car-crashes; the invention of nuclear energy, Hiroshima and Tchernobyl. The technologies of instant communications have invented another kind of the extermination of space and the derealization of time. Instant feedback is shrinking the planet to nothing, and "globalization" is its ultimate accident. First published in 1983, this book introduced Virilio's thinking to the United States. For successive generations of readers, it remains one of the most influential and far-reaching essays of our time.
Every new invention casts a long shadow that we are generally unwilling to acknowledge in the name of the invention of automobiles inaugurated car-crashes; the invention of nuclear energy, Hiroshima and Tchernobyl. The technologies of instant communications have invented another kind of the extermination of space and the derealization of time. Instant feedback is shrinking the planet to nothing, and "globalization" is its ultimate accident. First published in 1983, this book introduced Virilio's thinking to the United States. For successive generations of readers, it remains one of the most influential and far-reaching essays of our time.
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1984
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About the author
Paul Virilio
141 books269 followersPaul Virilio is a cultural theorist and urbanist. He is best known for his writings about technology as it has developed in relation to speed and power, with diverse references to architecture, the arts, the city and the military.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
February 28, 2018
In this collection of interviews conducted in 1983 Virilio supplies us with a kaleidoscopic glimpse of his thoughts on the relation between speed and perception, speed and war and speed and time, speed and economy.
Virilio won't dwell on the same topic for more than 2 paragraphs, so there's certainly an aspect of lightning assault on our intellection machine.
Sometimes it works, often it doesn't, leaving the reader dazzled and aphyxiated.
However, the introduction and the two postscripts are comparatively more focused and therefore provide a neat contrast to the rest of the book.
With the advent of technoscience, war has shifted from an evental confrontation to an infinite preparation (logistics), an infinite deployment of resources at the steady impoverishment of civil society.
"War is politics pursued by other means" proclaims Carl von Clausewitz.
Pure War is incarnation of war in logistics and deterrence, purportedly a justification for a steady accumulation of nuclear armaments.
But if the logic of deterrence assumes a certain humanity of the other, what happens when the enemy is no longer a great power but a network of terrorist cells?
The spectacle of terrorism (9/11) demonstrates that technological instantaneity has made possible the synchronization of everyone's affects in real time, to the detriment of real space.
What happens when politics gives way to transpolitics, the mutual implosion of all categories (Baudrillard).
In short, we're transitioning from the city of space (geopolitics) to the city of time (chronopolitics); we no longer dwell in space but in time.
What happens when the military class turns against its own civilians in the project of endo colonization?
In waging an assymetrical war against terrorists, the state itself comes to assume an increasingly terrorist character.
Ultimately, the metropolis has become the new battleground in this era of transpolitical war, the Impure War. Pure War can still happen, of course, but it is increasingly fading into strategic irrelevance.
Virilio won't dwell on the same topic for more than 2 paragraphs, so there's certainly an aspect of lightning assault on our intellection machine.
Sometimes it works, often it doesn't, leaving the reader dazzled and aphyxiated.
However, the introduction and the two postscripts are comparatively more focused and therefore provide a neat contrast to the rest of the book.
With the advent of technoscience, war has shifted from an evental confrontation to an infinite preparation (logistics), an infinite deployment of resources at the steady impoverishment of civil society.
"War is politics pursued by other means" proclaims Carl von Clausewitz.
Pure War is incarnation of war in logistics and deterrence, purportedly a justification for a steady accumulation of nuclear armaments.
But if the logic of deterrence assumes a certain humanity of the other, what happens when the enemy is no longer a great power but a network of terrorist cells?
The spectacle of terrorism (9/11) demonstrates that technological instantaneity has made possible the synchronization of everyone's affects in real time, to the detriment of real space.
What happens when politics gives way to transpolitics, the mutual implosion of all categories (Baudrillard).
In short, we're transitioning from the city of space (geopolitics) to the city of time (chronopolitics); we no longer dwell in space but in time.
What happens when the military class turns against its own civilians in the project of endo colonization?
In waging an assymetrical war against terrorists, the state itself comes to assume an increasingly terrorist character.
Ultimately, the metropolis has become the new battleground in this era of transpolitical war, the Impure War. Pure War can still happen, of course, but it is increasingly fading into strategic irrelevance.
August 15, 2017
I don't understand how a book can be so right, yet so wrong at the same time. If anything's for sure, Virilio is not afraid to break out of the limiting confines of mainstream intellectual discourse.
For Virilio and Lotringer's commentary on the importance of speed (an absolutely brilliant reformulation of speed as a producer of power), the underdevelopment of civil society and the civil economy by the "necessities" of military production (a different and better understanding of the military industrial complex), the automation and acceleration of war (how split second decisions made by computers could kill us all), how peace is waged, and his conception of state terrorism (the "fracturation" of war), this accessible work is undoubtedly important.
For Virilio and Lotringer's commentary on the importance of speed (an absolutely brilliant reformulation of speed as a producer of power), the underdevelopment of civil society and the civil economy by the "necessities" of military production (a different and better understanding of the military industrial complex), the automation and acceleration of war (how split second decisions made by computers could kill us all), how peace is waged, and his conception of state terrorism (the "fracturation" of war), this accessible work is undoubtedly important.
December 30, 2024
Really liked the discussion of endo-colonization and the hollowing out of the social services to fuel an ever-expanding war machine, even if the discussions of nuclear-priesthood feels somewhat outmoded in our (somewhat) post nuclear age. Though despite its dated subject matter (the cold War which was of course the issue of the rimes when it was written) the issues of state terrorism and technological warfare, that in which computers have surpassed human reaction time obliterating the ability to exist within the moment of war, feels pretty pertinent to the palestine/Israel war, atleast to me.
I also really liked in the post script Virilo essentially turned to the camera (as much as one can do in a transcript of an interview) and said "9/11 and the war on terror will happen" beat for beat four years before the actual events.
I also really liked in the post script Virilo essentially turned to the camera (as much as one can do in a transcript of an interview) and said "9/11 and the war on terror will happen" beat for beat four years before the actual events.
November 24, 2013
It's my conviction that Paul Virilio is the most important theorist writing today. His work is full of clear insights on subjects that are both exigent and morally vital. This 1983 interview (presented in an updated 2007 edition) presents virtually all of the major concepts in Virilio's work: speed, acceleration, violence, globalization, colonization, Total War, and the disappearance of reality. This text is absolutely crucial for anyone interested in understanding the contemporary global situation.
April 20, 2020
There is always a peripheral notion in Virilio that captures the imagination. The idea, for example, that preparing for war is Pure War, where civil life is subsumed by the logistics of war. Or the concept of endo-colonialism where imperial nations begin to colonize their own citizens.
Or this: "Before, you had to leave in order to arrive. Now things arrive before anyone's leaving. We can wonder what we will wait for when we no longer need to wait in order to arrive. The answer: we'll wait for the coming of what remains" (p.82). Whatever that means ... but it does capture the imagination.
Or this: "Before, you had to leave in order to arrive. Now things arrive before anyone's leaving. We can wonder what we will wait for when we no longer need to wait in order to arrive. The answer: we'll wait for the coming of what remains" (p.82). Whatever that means ... but it does capture the imagination.
April 16, 2020
This is my second engagement with Virilio (previously War and Cinema), and I am captured by the mood of his writing. He understands his role as philosopher as critical, insofar that it is akin to the role of the art critic. He is interested in formal critiques: apparatuses, models, and their formal qualities ("accidents"). The powers of adjudication that the object has and so on. I found this very interesting in his previous text as well. A very creative thinker, who, like Deleuze is also very prescient in many of his conjectures. Despite the technological apriori and the disappearance of the political or "politics," as we have understood it...there are affirmative notions within this text, and possibilities. It seems all that we have is the possibility of x.
September 11, 2025
Thankfully this strain of PoMo has shed much of its former cachet, so taking aim at it now feels a bit like beating a very pretentious dead horse. Still, Pure War is nonsense: a few sparks of insight smothered beneath a flood of seductive noise. Virilio circles the target, only to veer off into his Christian fixations and post-structuralist fetishes, sketching a dazzling but politically toothless constellation. And yes, he really thinks the Commune went too far when they shot the priests lol.
June 6, 2020
A must read for everyone living in this 21st century of technology!
December 27, 2025
Virillo I was not familliar with your game
July 30, 2008
yes, there are prophets, but which ones are they? This guy? Maybe, let's find out.
January 21, 2009
Nice lessons
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews