Κοινωνίες ελέγχου και κοινωνίες φόβου. Από την παγκόσμια αστυνόμευση στη στρατιωτική επιβολή

Abstract

The paper stresses the current need to study war and peace in their conjunction. It seeks to define the interrelation between modem forms of war and the principal elements of Western (and especially American) social structures in times of peace. It argues that 9/11 changed the way war is perceived and carried out on the part of the dominant international power of our era: the dominance of fear has evolved into the main political characteristic of the American way of life and, consequently, warfare has been transformed ideologically into a permanent social need. Such a novel ideology seeks to assimilate all citizens into a discourse that accords primary importance to state power, allows novel forms of conservatism to spring up, and creates new symbolic and material bonds through the so-called ‘strategy pact’. In such a light, the paper argues, the wars of the past decade can be seen as palpable manifestations of a Weltanschauung that leans heavily toward the fixed ideas of Control, Surveillance, and Vulgar Pluralism.