Jean Baudrillard
Jean Baudrillard (born in Reims, France in 1929) is a cultural theorist and philosopher. His work is frequently associated with postmodernism and post-structuralism. He is an emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Paris.
Jean Baudrillard is famous for his investigations into hyperreality, and in particular hyperreality in America. According to Baudrillard, America has constructed itself a world that is more “real” than Real, and where those inhabiting it are obsessed with timelessness, perfection, and objectification of the self. Furthermore, authenticity has been replaced by copy (thus reality is replaced by a substitute), and nothing is “real,” though those engaged in the illusion are incapable of seeing it.
Shortly before the Gulf War, Baudrillard predicted that the war would not actually happen. After the war, he claimed he had been correct, and that no war had taken place. The reality of the war, where people fight for a cause and are killed, had been replaced by a ‘copy’ war that is delivered to televisions across the world where no fighting is taking place. America was engaged in an illusion that it was fighting, much as the mind engages with a video game, where the experience tricks the consciousness into believing it is an active participant in something that is not happening. So while the combat may have been real, only a few people experienced it and they were on the other side of the world. The 'war' that was broadcast on television, and therefore the war as it is understood by the majority of people, was not actually real.
Objects, but in particular consumer objects, can be thought of as being valued in 4 ways:
Baudrillard’s Object Value System
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