Western modernity, narratives and the pornography of death

This article takes as its starting point the fact that we are at the time of writing, here in the West at war. It argues that this reality, however, is not particularly salient if you do not watch the news or read the newspapers reporting on the war. Building on this, it goes on to argue that a change in the nature of war has also meant that war itself has become a non-reality for many in the West (although not for the non-western nations that face it) and that therefore a moral awakening for the West needs the conveyance of starker images of war to re-sensitize it. The article explores this central hypothesis and ventures bold assertions about the meanings and hidden impulses that determine western modernity's relationship to war in our contemporary times.