Fear of Speed in the Philosophy of Paul Virilio

Abstract

Now we are in a very new society, and speed is one of the characteristics of this society. This speed, which has become part of our human nature and has affected our consciousness, has brought with it fear.High-speed trains, drones, the Internet, laser-powered rockets, etc., all make speed seem absolute. The speed of the times, which has become an ideology and has occupied the public, is also seen in the economy, the military and politics. Our movement has become part of us under the pressure of this speed. Our movements are not normal and are present everywhere (in the bank, in the bedroom, in the bathroom, on the train, in...). In other words, our time is an age of excessive speed. Speed is responsible for all our accidents. Accidents are products of speed. The bigger and faster the trains, ships and planes, the bigger the accidents. This is where the fear of speed begins. Paul Virilio’s (19322018-) philosophical works have not been studied at the Kurdish Academy. In this study, the fear of speed in Virilio’s philosophy is the fear of several subjects, which form the basis of this study. Fear of speed is a fear of the physical dimension of the new civilization, a technological civilization, which plays a major role in creating speed and acceleration, and a fear of speed technologies, which degrade distance and physical experience. The study believes that the destructive forces of modern civilizational technologies and techno-industrial society, which brought about this speed, are responsible for creating fear. Thus, when Paul Virilio focuses on speed in his research, he brings us closer to the speed of the new man and his behavior. That is, he considers speed as a test of knowledge of the times and their phenomena. Therefore, this study, which is about fear of the speed of time, has two important objectives. The first goal is to work on Virilio’s philosophical approach to speed, which has produced social and political acceleration. Another purpose of this study is to examine how the physical speed of technology, which is a Virilio theory, affects the phenomena of new society (movement, time, body, city, war) and becomes a source of fear. So according to Virilio’s philosophy of dromology, speed is the best measure of the growth of today’s society.