An Aesthetics of Fear: The 7/7 London Bombings, the Sublime, and Werenotafraid.com

In: Millennium: journal of international studies, Band 34, Heft 3, S. 683-710

Abstract

How are the aesthetics of fear politically mobilised & politically mobilising? This article directs this question to a specific series of events beginning with the bombing of the London transportation system on 7/7, the near repeat performance of this event on 7/21, & the 'Shoot to Kill to Protect' policy's first application which resulted in the killing of electrician Jean Charles de Menezes on 7/22. In particular, it addresses itself to one specific aestheticisation of fear, the images posted on the website Werenotafraid.com & the incessant circulation & discussion of these images since 7/7. The article argues that the asetheticisation of the London bombings through this specific website illustrates the often overlooked second movement in the Kantian sublime: the movement from rupture to a restoration of order & of closure. What interests me are the aesthetic strategies by which Werenotafraid.com effects a restoration of order & gives closure to the breakdown of the British imagination, of not only national security but also unity. This article first traces the reliance of these aesthetic strategies on a Kantian morality. It then explains how these Kantian-inflected strategies repair the breakdown of the British imagination of security through a very specific 'panhuman' restoration of British unity. Finally, it analyses the failures of the Werenotafraid.com project, politically & morally. Figures. Adapted from the source document.