(Dark) Pure War: Virilio, the Cinematic, and the Racial.

Paul Virilio’s work has largely been utilized in theories of media and war, specifically his discussion of ‘pure war’, or the continuance of war beyond its physicality. Cinema, for Virilio, was a pedagogical tool toward preparing populations for such a war. Cinema produced images of objects, perceptually distancing audiences from said objects; it, thus, prepared ‘everyone’ to become objects open to being watched, holding relevance for cinema, surveillance, and information studies. Yet, this concern with watching and surveillance is not race neutral. I argue that Virilio’s work on pure war can be reinterpreted as ‘dark pure war’, concerned with a militaristic, unending war against nonwhite populations. Such war presumes both physical and digital forms of colonialist militarism, policing, and surveillance, particular as information is often assumed to be race-neutral, while also being weaponized toward dark pure war’s continuance. Thus, race is an underexamined, overlooked element of Virilio’s theory

The (Black) Elephant in the Room: McLuhan and the Racial.

Background This article combines Marshall McLuhan’s media theory with the “racial contract” theory of political philosopher Charles Mills. Analysis Mills critiques the older, Western “social contract,” which holds that “Western man” moves from a “state of nature” (or McLuhan’s tribal man) into “civilization” (McLuhan’s detribal man and retribal man) via organizing with similar humans to establish the rules, laws, codes, guidelines, and, as is argued here, technologies necessary for human cohabitation. Mills argues that there are racial assumptions of the social contract, meaning only some are consenting signatories, particularly White men; thus, the social contract is actually a racial contract. Conclusion and implications McLuhan’s media theory is consistent with Mills’ racial contract: tribal man resides in a state of nature, awaiting man’s detribal or retribal benevolence