Simulacra and Simulations

Simulacra to Simulations, by Jean Baudrillard, discusses the line between truth and abstraction. Much of the content in this article was difficult for me to fully understand, so my hope is that I will analyze it correctly. What I took from the text as the main idea is that people have mastered the art of creating false maps instead of seeing the real territory. We form abstractions of the real thing. Signs and symbols lead us to misconceptions about events, images, people, etc. and this is how we base most of our thoughts.

“All of Western faith and good faith was engaged in this wager on representation: that a sign could refer to the depth of meaning, that a sign could exchange for meaning and that something could guarantee this exchange.” This quote was taken from the section in the text regarding the Jesuits. The Jesuits based their political system on the virtual disappearance of God. This is something that could have had a possible mistaken truth and yet they created their own map of what the believed to be true and used it in guidance. We need to believe something is true so we have some sort of reality, even if it is false.

“One can live with the idea of a distorted truth.” The example of Disneyland is a good one, except when he relates it so a concentration camp which is a little ridiculous. Amusement parks are full of simulation and we love it. All forms of media are intriguing and have contributed to this idea of simulacra. It is hard for us to distinguish between simulacra and reality. Signs and symbols are the base of our society. An image is not the real item but it is close enough.

Sometimes when the territory is gone all we have left is the map that we created. Sometimes we live in a false reality and don’t even know it. I think its cool how this relates to the Matrix and how Neo and most people were living in a false reality with no knowledge of the truth. “Morpheus also refers to the real world outside of the Matrix as the "desert of the real" (wikipedia.com) Although Baudrillard mentioned the film distorted his work, I think it shows a good representation of simulacra vs. reality. Then again, I could be creating a false map from the movie.

I think this is an interesting subject. It is concept that is well alive today because we are shown so many signs in simulations of image, language, etc. so we constantly need to distinguish between simulacra and reality in our lives. There is often no way of knowing if we have made the right choice or if we let the abstractions get to us. In response to the actual article by Baudrillard, I didn't enjoy reading it and some of the examples didn't seem to fit but there were some good ideas I will admit.