Global Media Apocalypse

Pleasure, Violence and the Cultural Imaginings of Doom

verfasst von: Jeff Lewis

Verlag: Palgrave Macmillan UK

Enthalten in: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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Über dieses Buch

The modern world seems trapped between fantasies of infinite pleasure and the prospects of total global catastrophe. Global Media Apocalypse explores these contrary imaginings through an evolving cultural ecology of violence. Articulated through the global media, these apocalyptic fantasies express a profoundly human condition of crisis.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

Introduction: Out of the 9/11 Decade

Abstract

9/11 and the Arab Uprisings bookend the decade 2001–2011. The al-Qa’ida attacks on the United States were announced by government and media as a defining moment in world history, a moment in which the separation of good and evil became absolute. Invoking both a Christian and a democratic state ideology, the US President declared war on evil:

Good evening. Today, our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom came under attack in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts … Thousands of lives were suddenly ended by evil, despicable acts of terror … A great people has been moved to defend a great nation. Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundations of America. These acts shattered steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve. America was targeted for attack because we’re the brightest beacon for freedom and opportunity. And no-one will keep that light from shining. Today our nation saw evil, the very worst of human nature … This is a day when all Americans from every walk of life unite in our resolve … None of us will ever forget this day. Yet, we go forward to defend freedom and all that is good and just in the world. (Bush, 2001)

Jeff Lewis

1. New Media — Old Empires: Celebrity, Sex and Revolutions of Knowing

Abstract

The wedding of Prince William to Kate Middleton was the most mediated and viewed event in human history. Eclipsing the marriage of William’s own parents in 1981, the 2011 British royal wedding was telecast, podcast, tweeted, reported and skype-cast to an estimated 2 billion people across the planet (BBC, 2011a). While other great global spectacles have attracted enormous viewing audiences, the royal wedding appears to have elicited a universal romantic and nuptial imagining. Diverse viewing communities across the world were, presumably, entranced by the grandeur and glamour of the event, and a sense of shared ritual that sanctified desire, fecundity and the promise of new life and new hope.

Jeff Lewis

2. Under the Volcano: The Cultural Ecology of Nature

Abstract

In an article syndicated from The Telegraph, the Mayor of London argued against politicizing the 2011 Japanese earthquake, particularly by the anti-nuclear lobby. Mayor Boris Johnson was especially contemptuous of the idea that the meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear power plant was a form of ‘divine retribution’, punishment for excessive human interventions in nature:

The most important lesson from the Japan earthquake is that there are no lessons for human behaviour; and over the next few days it is vital that we watch out for the preachers and the moralisers who will try to use it to further their campaigns … These are the atomkraft-neindanke brigade, who have always believed that any kind of nuclear fission — tampering with the building blocks of the universe — was an invitation to cosmic retribution. They will now do everything they can to exploit the Fukushima explosions and the difficulties being experienced in bringing a couple of nuclear plants under control. (Johnson, 2011)

Recalling the superstitious beliefs of Ancient Greece, Mesopotamia and tsunami-affected Thailand, Johnson warned against cosmological interpretations that link ‘natural’ disaster to human immorality. Thus, the myths that explain earthquakes as punishment for human hedonism, heresy or interventions in nature have no place in a world that is governed by the logics of economy, state management and human progress.

Jeff Lewis

3. Hyper-Pleasure: Consumer Rituals and Transactions of Desire

Abstract

Many critics argue that consumer capitalism has its roots in the earlier phases of modern industrialism and the rise of global trading systems (Stearns, 2001; Humphery, 2009; Smart, 2010; Stiegler, 2010). While recognizing that human societies have always engaged in some forms of self-adornment and symbolic exchange of pleasurable commodities, Peter Stearns (2001) points to the exponential increases in the global trade of spices, textiles, gemstones, porcelain and decorative clothing during the eighteenth century. Drawn often from the colonized territories of Africa and Asia, these commodities mark a significant expansion and transformation of European consumer practices and tastes.

Jeff Lewis

4. Menace: Westernism, Media and the Cultural Ecology of Violence

Abstract

In February 2010, Anders Behring Breivik wrote in his online diary and manifesto:

I just bought Modern Warfare 2, the game. It is probably the best military simulator out there and it’s one of the hottest games this year … I see MW2 more as a part of my training-simulation than anything else. I’ve still learned to love it though and especially the multiplayer part is amazing. You can more or less completely simulate actual operations. (Breivik, 2011)

In July 2011 Breivik translated his training into ‘actual operation’. The self-ascribed defender of Europe detonated a bomb in the government district of Oslo, killing seven people and wounding many more. A few hours later, Breivik shot dead another 70 people who were attending a youth summer training camp on the island of Utoeya. Breivik targeted the youth camp because it was organized by Norway’s Labour government and included attendees from various ethnic backgrounds, including people of the Muslim faith.

Jeff Lewis

5. After the Apocalypse: Refugees, Human Rights and the Global Media Future

Abstract

According to the United Nations High Commission on Refugees, the number of ‘People of Concern’ continues to escalate, particularly through the effects of protracted war, oppressive regimes and climate-based disasters like floods and droughts. Among these people are ‘refugees’ who face persecution in their homeland and are seeking resettlement in another state. According to the United Nations Convention on the Status of Refugees (1951), a refugee is:

Any person who owing to a well founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his/her nationality and is unable, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself/herself of the protection of that country. (Article 1A[2])

Individuals who are seeking refugee status have at least two options. First, they can escape the borders of their home nation and enter a neighbouring nation where they can seek protection and resettlement to a third, preferred destination. While awaiting formal confirmation of their status and resettlement, refugee claimants often enter a refugee camp administered by the temporary host government, non-governmental organization such as the Red Cross, or the United Nations.

Jeff Lewis

Conclusion: Peace

Abstract

This book has argued that a cultural ecology of violence evolves through the confluence of historical and contemporary crisis conditions. Generated around the social organization of human desire, these conditions are evinced through the cultural and epistemic imaginings of infinite bliss and infinite doom. In this sense, doom represents the iron hammer of a civilizational progression that resonates in the hierarchical ordering of people, culture and nodal knowledge systems.

Jeff Lewis

Backmatter

Titel: Global Media Apocalypse
verfasst von: Jeff Lewis
Verlag: Palgrave Macmillan UK
Electronic ISBN: 978-1-137-00545-8
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-43474-9
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137005458