Thursday, April 16, 2009

Revolution

"Transgression and violence [such as a real vs. "fake" hold up] are less serious, for they only contest the distribution of the real. Simulation is infinitely more dangerous since it always suggests, over and above its object, that law and order themselves might really be nothing more than a simulation." (Baudrillard, 180)

What Baudrillard appears to be saying here is that the nature of the simulacrum, since it alone is the truth and proves that there's nothing really beneath its depths, provides ample opportunity for the subversion of a system. Now, granted, Professor Doane mentioned today during lecture that postmodernism doesn't leave any room for subversion since there is no norm to be subverted, but I wondered if this, perhaps paradoxically, strengthens the idea of a lawless reality. For though there is no norm that can be subverted in postmodernism, people are always drawn into the system (would Baudrillard use the term 'ideology?'), the reality that is established by simulation. The question is, can they move outside it? Can they recognize simulation as a sign of a lack of truth and possibly take up arms against it? Is revolt a feasible possibility to Baudrillard? (It seems that way to me, but I'm not sure if such an argument was his intent.)

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