Terrorism, Technology and Apocalyptic Futures

This chapter centers on the role of myth-building and myths as the touchstone of culture and society. It deals with the idea that far from being silly stories, myths are a representational archetype that helps society to resolve practical problems or philosophical quandaries. Having said this, one might speculate that the scatology, which is understood as a tradition that narrates the end of the world, has occupied a central position in the industry of cultural entertainment. However, this obsession for the apocalypse theory seems to be proportionally indirect to the scientific studies in the field. This suggests not only the needs of discussing why the human will opposes the desires of Gods (expressed in the prophecy) but also the anxieties an uncertain future wakes up.

The chapter discusses critically the ontology of zombie world, as well as its interlink with the Thana-capitalism, as a new stage of capitalism where the Other’s death is gazed, consumed and preferred. The paradigm of the zombie world is debated in this chapter. In this respect, the culture of zombies situates in a futurist—apocalyptic—world, where technology and modern science have contributed to the end of mankind. The survivors not only struggle against zombies in a hostile world but also redeem the human nature according to two contrasting forces, the needs of survival which led to extreme individualism and the needs of re-foundation. The figure of the zombie represents the pauperized other we do not want to accept in our homes. This ranges from refugees, asylum-seekers or migrants who are daily humiliated at the borders and check-points.

9/11 has changed the world in many senses. It introduced not only fear in the contemporary society, but also ignited the counter-reaction to the US in what G. W Bush dubbed as “War on Terror”. This chapter centers on a philosophical discussion that relates the international geopolitics with the sociology of terrorism. Basically, the archetype of 9/11 has woken the interests of many scholars though, to date, it is ideologically inspired. Paradoxically, while much attention was paid on the archetype of 9/11 as a founding event that subordinated other similar events, less understanding of the issue scholars have. This chapter places the war on terror and 9/11 under the critical lens of scrutiny.

This chapter centers on the changes, limitations and future challenges tourism research faces in the years to come. In the days of morbid consumption, which means the proliferation of new dark forms of consumption as dark tourism, slum tourism, last day tourism or even war-tourism, scholars seem to be misguided or trapped into conceptual gridlocks. In fact, our grandparents chose other types of destinations for their holidays. Instead, new forms of tourism—more oriented to spaces of destruction, mass death and suffering—are surfacing. This chapter, echoing the main contributions of Dean MacCannell, calls for the introduction of ethics in business. This begs the following question: to what extent is dark tourism or last day tourism a sustainable activity?

The term “genocide” was originally coined by Lemkin just after the horrendous crimes committed against innocent civilians in Nazi Germany. At that moment, the SS officials disposed of a systemic rationalized system of death which was oriented to domesticate and eradicate the “inferior” or the undesired “Other”. The concentration camps were space of torture, violence, death and mourning that marked the state of Israel forever. Today things have changed a lot, and the state of Israel is accused of violating the human rights in Palestine. While we review the discussion of senior lecturers such as Slavoj Žižek, Richard Bernstein, Norman Finkelstein and Yakov Rabkin, we reconstruct the philosophical touchstone that led a nomad tribe to become a state. This chapter deals not only with the sense of prophesy in Israel, but also it toys with the belief that the messianic idea of Messiah played a leading role in our appetite for consuming the Others’ death.

From immemorial times, Aborigines and ancient cultures were frightened of disasters because these events were seen as divine reprisals or punishment for their sins (as the Noah’s Ark myth shows). Although modern science introduced instrumental thinking to understand disasters, improving the quality of life, it is equally true that capitalism obscured the diagnosis of scientists to protect the system. Blind to see the real problems of earth, today, capitalism offers distorted answers to the problem of climate change, migration and refugee crises, and even to the economic downturn. Based on the tactics of blaming Others, the elite allude to poverty as the precondition toward humanitarian disasters.

This book installed a polemic discussion which helps in understanding not only the obsession for terrorism and the securitization process but also the problems of West to accept the alterity. This book revised not only the logic and dominant discourse of imperialism but also the emergence of zombie culture and apocalyptic theories as cultural mirrors of our society. The fear seems to be only the tip of the iceberg, while in our innermost feelings our unconscious speaks to us of the deprivations and frustrations of an under-class which is materially and symbolically immobilized. In this respect, technology is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it emancipates the human nature, while on the other hand it becomes an iron cage. The apocalypse reminds how important and dangerous the human will is. To put the same in other terms, in a World of Wall where the other is undesired, technology plays a leading role but generating a net of complex and dense narratives for the neoliberal policies to be passively accepted.