Paul Virilio Interview

Mr. Virillio has an interesting idea about comparing various elements of media. I'm a little bit lost on his whole idea about these "accidents". I see his take on modern technology and media as a somewhat naive point of view. In a sense, he is being too vague and metaphysical in his comparisons. How is television a mistake? In comparing cinema to television and our capacity to be impacted by them on different levels he ignores the history of such elements. He segregates television into some league which it certainly is not. I will agree that television has had a fairly negative impact but it has also brought information prior to the internet at an alarming rate that was not seen before in the radio. Surely then, telegraph, is an accident as much as television during its time period. His scenario is simply too unrealistic and contrived of metaphoric comparisons to relate to the realistic notion of technology and media. His comparison with the Gulf War was a strong example but still does not touch upon the realistic nature of media and its impact in our day. Mr. Virilio seems to draw too much from some idealistic cyberworld which he perhaps envisions. Maybe in his old age reality has taken a toll on him or perhaps life wasn't what he expected but reality is not going to be substituted by his Jewish proverbs or technological bridge extensions. He seems to be very jaded by his time as a soldier and while I agree war is certainly a "civil" approach to future, his idea is too abstracted (especially when relating current technologies) to contrive an idea of the future being a separation of body from mind and our "war machine accident" being 'finally' eradicated.