The decisive factor is no longer winning or prevailing “on the ground,” but rather capturing global perception. What was called perception management in the 1980s is now being reconfigured as cognitive warfare , and attempt to control what is believed and what is considered possible to believe. The ultimate struggle lies in determining how the... See more

An essay such as this, then, cannot proceed without mentioning Jean Baudrillard and his exemplary The Gulf War Did Not Take Place (1991). In this text he theorizes that war is fought, above all, on screens, because “representation replaces experience and war becomes a flow of administered images.” This includes the horrific videos of bombings and... See more

“If you want to create a monocultural event, start a war,” said Nick Susi in a recent essay. The Super Bowl, Trump vs any other politician, Drake vs Kendrick, The Night of the Year, what unifies global attention today is the spectacle of combat.

Ernest Bormann’s Symbolic Convergence Theory comes in handy here: groups consolidate identities through dramatic narratives that reinforce their cohesion. On social media, these narratives are set up as moral wars in which digital lynchings, micro-violence, or public humiliation serve an almost ritualistic function. They affirm belonging while at... See more