Dromocracy and American Airlines

Paul Virilio observes that time “compression” (a Marxist term, referring to speeding-up of economic and other social processes) has unintended and counter-intentional consequences. Adam summarizes: “while cars, planes and trains had become progressively aster, the time spent in transit had not been compressed at an equal rate. Standstill and traffic jams, snails’ pace and stop-go progression are key features of today’s traffic around urban centres. Endless queues in crowded lobbies are a mark of travel by plane [especially in the past week!] , delays and cancellations an integral part of commuting by train.” Virilio formulated a “dromological law” (“dromology” studies the sphere of beings in motion): “increase in speed increases the potential for gridlock.”

Virilio is also concerned that dromcracy is at points incompatible with democracy. Time and speed are not equally distributed: “the money-rich-time-poor can use their wealth to purchase speed, while the time-rich-money-poor cannot use their time to purchase wealth, that is, exchange their excess time for money” (it’s not clear why this is the case – don’t many money-poor people use excess time for second and third jobs, and thereby become money-richer?). Traffic jams and waiting lines have different effects on different travelers.