If you ask most historians what shapes the course of events, they might answer: ideas, economics, class struggle, institutions. For Paul Virilio, the answer was blunt: speed. He called his theory dromology (from the Greek dromos, “race” or “run”), the study of how velocity governs politics, war, and culture. In Virilio’s world, to control speed is to control history.
Speed as Power
For centuries, states and empires have measured strength in terms of acceleration. The horse gave way to the railway, the railway to the jet, the jet to the satellite and the fiber optic cable. Each advance compressed space and time, turning distances that once took months into hours, then seconds, then nanoseconds.
Virilio argued that this shrinking of time is more decisive than any ideology. The side that moves fastest—whether an army advancing, a corporation trading, or a message going viral—dominates. As he put it, history itself is the history of acceleration.
War and the Race for Velocity
Virilio’s military background sharpened his insights. He studied fortifications, logistics, and battlefield strategies, noticing a pattern: victory almost always went to the side that mastered speed. Napoleon’s rapid campaigns, Blitzkrieg in WWII, drone warfare in the 21st century—all demonstrate how acceleration disrupts slower opponents before they can respond.
In the Cold War, this logic escalated to terrifying extremes. The nuclear arms race was not just about firepower, but about reducing “response time” to seconds. Today, that race continues in cyberspace, where attacks unfold in milliseconds, often faster than human decision-making can catch up.
Markets and Media at Warp Speed
Dromology does not stop at war. The same principle applies to economics and culture. High-frequency trading systems now execute deals in microseconds, generating fortunes or crashes before human traders even see the numbers. Social media spreads outrage or rumor at similar velocity: a single post can destabilize markets, politics, or reputations in real time.
This is Virilio’s unsettling point: speed has become a form of violence. The faster system doesn’t just win—it erases the possibility of competition. Slowness is no longer just a disadvantage; it is annihilation.
Why It Matters
Virilio’s theory of dromology feels prophetic in a world addicted to acceleration. We refresh feeds by the minute, expect instant deliveries, and fear being “left behind.” Yet speed also generates fragility. When systems operate faster than humans can comprehend, accidents become inevitable—and catastrophic.
To grasp Virilio’s insight is to recognize that politics is not just about left and right, or even rich and poor. It is also about fast and slow. Who sets the tempo of society? Who gets to move instantly, and who is forced to wait? These are questions of power as decisive as any ideology.
Dromology reminds us that the modern world is not only a contest of ideas but a race of velocities. And in that race, the finish line is never stable—it is always moving faster.
Know More:
The Invention of the Accident: Paul Virilio on Technology’s Shadow
The Vision Machine: Paul Virilio on Seeing and Being Seen
The Aesthetics of Disappearance: Paul Virilio on Time, Memory, and the Instant
