Shock and Awe: the politics of production
It has been six years since 9/11 and ten since the publication of the right-wing thesis ‘Shock and Awe: Achieving Rapid Dominance’. This is the book that acted as a conceptual sound-bite for framing the technique and technology needed for bombing people – a lot. In the aftermath of 9/11, the off-the-peg response in design consumption was a proliferation of Khaki, camouflage and an upturn in the sale of Humvees and SUV’s in general. Now, the shock and awe mantra has fed into an ‘age of anxiety’ and a ‘culture of fear’ in the psyche of much of the West.