The Political Aesthetics of ISIS and Italian Futurism

Through empirical analysis and theoretical reflection, this book shows that the aesthetics and politics of the Islamic State is "futurist." ISIS overcomes postmodern pessimism and joins the modern, techno-oriented, and optimistic attitude propagated by Italian Futurism in the early twentieth century. The Islamic State does not only excel through the extensive use of high-tech weapons, social media, commercial bot, and automated text systems. By putting forward the presence of speeding cars and tanks, mobile phones, and computers, ISIS presents jihad life as connected to modern urban culture. Futurism praised violence as a means of leaving behind imitations of the past in order to project itself most efficiently into the future. A profound sense of crisis produces in both Futurism and jihadism a nihilistic attitude toward the present state of society that will be overcome through an exaltation of technology. Futurists were opposed to parliamentary democracy and sympathized with nationalism and colonialism. ISIS jihadism suggests a similarly curious combination of modernism and conservative values. The most obvious modern characteristic of this new image of fundamentalism is the highly aestheticized recruiting material. Contents 6 Introduction: Islamic Futurism? A Study in Political Aesthetics 8 1 ISIS and Futurism: An Impossible Comparison? 28 2 The Futurist Aesthetics of ISIS 48 3 From Cyberpunk back to Futurism: The Trajectory of ISIS 80 4 Fascism, ISIS, and Futurism 100 5 Islam 132 6 Terrorism and Cyberpunk 152 7 The Real Machine Versus the Virtual Machine 174 Conclusion: Artificial Optimism Then and Today 196 Epilogue 202 Bibliography 206 Index 222 About the Author 228