Simulations: Pages 1-13


Baudrillard’s topic of discussion is at its core an interesting one: what can the emergence of mass society and highly accessible replication technologies teach us about the nature of reality? “What is reality” is a question philosophers have been asking for centuries — Socrates asked if certain people can go beyond simply viewing the shadows on the cave wall, Christian thinkers have wondered about the realities that take place before and after death, and Buddhists have considered how one’s relationship with material and worldly pleasures shapes one's view of the universe.


Baudrillard is working in the context of globalization and mass production, and his arguments and ideas are naturally shaped by that. However, his writing is just kind of nonsensical. In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, he works with a strict logical structure and guides readers through his ideas step by step. Those coming from religious backgrounds may take a more poetic approach to expressing their ideas, an approach that differs from Plato's, but one that is ultimately still valid and can be well executed. Baudrillard, on the other hand, flips rapidly between these two modes, and he ultimately struggles with getting his message across. He jumps from one train of thought crafted in an Aristotelian frame to another thought that was born in a poetic mode. The book honestly feels a bit like the journal of a veteran psychonaut — interesting, but a little hard to follow.

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