Baudrillard: Reality, Virtuality and Hyperreality.

Baudrillard's theories were based upon principles established by Marx (‘critique of political economy',‘labour theory of value’ etc.)



Theories established by Sassure (particularly his theory of the sign): etc.

Plato's Cave Allegory:
Basically it goes: If people are strapped to their seats and shown shadow puppets against the cave wall, all they know as reality is the shadows. The reality is in fact the fire and the manipulation of their of.

This becomes a metaphor for the reality we are presented with through mass media and the actual reality of a situation.
‘mundum simulacrum aeternum esse alicuius aeterni’
Cicero’s translation of The Timaeus
Plato, The Timaeus

Simulacra and Simulation

Types of Simulacra:

1. where the image is clearly an artificial placemarker for the real item.
2. Second order, associated with the industrial Revolution, where distinctions between image and reality break down due to the proliferation of mass-produced copies. The item's ability to imitate reality threatens to replace the original version.
3. Third order, associated with the postmodern age, where the simulacrum precedes the original and the distinction between reality and representation breaks down. There is only the simulacrum.-Hegarty, Paul (2004). Jean Baudrillard: live theory. London

The origins of Simulacra:

1. Contemporary media including television, film, print and the Internet, which are responsible for blurring the line between goods that are needed and goods for which a need is created by commercial images.
2. Exchange value, in which the value of goods is based on money rather than usefulness.
3. Multinational capitalism, which separates produced goods from the plants, minerals and other original materials and the processes used to create them.
4. Urbanization, which separates humans from the natural world.
5. Language and ideology, in which language is used to obscure rather than reveal reality when used by dominant, politically powerful groups.

Disnification
Baudrillard argued that Disney was full simulation, i.e. The Disney castle was based on a Disney castle in a movie, there is no basis for this place in reality. There is nowhere else on earth more real, in that you know in it's entirety it's a simulation. There is no chance of mistaken simulation for reality.

The Gulf War didn't really happen
The crux of this controversial book's arguement was that the truth of the Gulf War is never really seen, it's existance to most was through Radar and images on tv screens, most of the decisions in the war were based on perceived intelligence coming from maps, images, and news, than from actual seen-with-the-eye intelligence.