Citation

Rose P. J. Contemp. Relig. 2012; 27(3): 365-381.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/13537903.2012.722020

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article employs René Girard's anthropology of violence and the sacred in order to elucidate the evolution of an emerging planetary sacramental framework that Neil Postman refers to as 'Technopoly'. Involving the divinisation of technology, this phenomenon--like all forms of what Girard identifies as the archaic sacred--simultaneously entails the ongoing sanctification of collective violence. Just as there is a tendency in myth for violence to be veiled or hidden in Girard's analysis, a similarly disturbing propensity exists today, specifically in relation to both certain tenets associated with the so-called 'Revolution in Military Affairs' and the development of what we have come to know as 'militainment'. Here I demonstrate how these developments threaten to integrate the member nations of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) into this perturbing American development and how they may bode ill for future world peace or even long-term human survival.