Revelling in illusion: Jean Baudrillard
3 days ago
- #Simulacrum
- #Baudrillard
- #Postmodernism
- Marine Baudrillard found her husband's work difficult to understand, a sentiment shared by many students of arts and social sciences.
- Jean Baudrillard's writing is described as having 'enigmatic verve', though it is dense and challenging.
- Baudrillard was prolific, writing over 40 books and several book-length interviews, yet his wife claimed she never saw him work hard.
- Baudrillard's central idea was that modern mass media replaces reality with a 'simulacrum', a world of images without underlying meaning.
- He dismissed the 1968 Paris student protests as ideological posturing, arguing that there was no real world for their ideas to act upon.
- In 1991, Baudrillard controversially argued that the Gulf War did not really happen, claiming it was a media fabrication.
- His ideas influenced 'The Matrix' films and reflect ancient concerns about appearance vs. reality, but with a unique embrace of illusion.
- Baudrillard's work represents a betrayal of intellectual responsibility by abandoning the pursuit of truth and moral seriousness.