Thursday, March 08, 2007
"IT BECOMES THEIR REALITY"
Quite without meaning to, Tim Footman writes the perfect obit for French reality opponent Jean Baudrillard:
Most notoriously, he argued that the (first) Gulf war did not take place, that it was simply a succession of symbolic gestures conducted by each side, and that it only achieved the identity of a military campaign because it was labelled as such by politicians and the media.
But, in many ways, Baudrillard got it right. He is the thinker most associated with the notion of the simulacrum: essentially that modern society creates representations and copies that are more “real” than the original ... Reality TV is an obvious example: something marketed on the basis of its authenticity becomes more intense and absorbing and important (hyperreal) than the authentic life we see around us. People prefer it to reality. It becomes their reality ...
Not to be outdone, George Bush appeared in Iraq in November 2003, bearing a Thanksgiving turkey. The turkey was intended to represent the peace and prosperity that the coalition forces had brought to Iraq, thus offering a perfect simulacrum - a hyperreal symbol for something that doesn’t exist. And just to add to the postmodern fun, it wasn’t even a real turkey.
Just to add even further to this riot of po-mo hilarity, the fake turkey wasn’t fake! Figure that out, Footman.
(Via Andrew Rutherford)
UPDATE. Leading Cretan thinker Chris Sheil:
For those who get Jean Baudrillard, he was an intellectual superstar whose frequent missives were eagerly received and always enjoyed; and if you happened to be working in the fields he touched on (principally the electronic media), he was a priceless line of critical theoretical supply. For these readers, thinkers and fans, our debts to the man are large and he will be very sadly missed.