Baudrillard

Nothing True

You will recognise some of the language and ideas here from the page on Jameson. They were around at the same time and knew each other’s work and ideas.

However Baudrillard adds a twist…

We’re living in a simulation!

Consumer Culture

Like Jameson he is highly critical of western capitalist consumer culture. He suggested  we are living in a world in which we define ourselves through the products we buy and the brands we support.

Consumption, Baudrillard asserts, is not just about need, it’s not merely a badge of identity, it’s how we’re programmed to see reality and our place and purpose in the world!

Hegemony

We are controlled / conditioned by the media, which encourages us to buy into a culturally dominant set of ideas and norms.

Simulacra

He agrees with Jameson that we have lost our understanding of the original idea (History), through the continued recycling of ideas and images and narratives and tropes and memes…

Baudrillard takes this one step further and suggests that we mistake that copy of the copy of the copy for ‘reality.’

We are like the prisoners in the Allegory of Plato’s Cave.

Hyper-Reality

We are living in a world of recycled images and ideas that have lost the connection to the original idea/image (Jameson) and furthermore the boundaries between reality and media reality are becoming blurred and confused.

Let’s watch some ‘Reality TV.’

Hyper-normalisation (not technically a term from Baudrillard)

Adam Curtis pus it brilliantly in this Documentary series.

Not for the faint hearted!

Skip to toolbar