The Beautification of War:

This public lecture proposes that we have entered the age of destructive meta wars. Digital communications technologies are nowadays enabling not only frightening transformations of the modes and weapons of warfare but also, paradoxically, media representations of war by governments, military PR propagandists, breaking news journalists, soldiers, and citizens that “gamify” war, beautify its horrors, and lullaby millions of people into indifference toward wars that are seemingly emptied of blood, cruelty, and genocidal destruction.

Especially in the old democracies of the Atlantic region, the new meta wars generate public indifference, and feelings of emotional disconnection. But this public indifference is vulnerable to a counter-trend unique to the age of meta wars: the birth of new media platforms whose rebel journalists digitally expose the terrible realities of these wars, cast doubts on their moral and practical necessity, and teach civilians everywhere that they have the right not to suffer meta wars, even that there is a time coming when war in every form will have to be abolished.

This study was published in the 17th issue of AlMuntaqa, a peer-reviewed academic journal for the social sciences and humanities. You can read the full paper here.

Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies