Murder of the Real – Jean Baudrillard

This clip shows Jean Baudrillard’s book, Simulacra and Simulation, in which Neo hides his illegal software at the beginning of the movie. In one scene Morpheus says ‘welcome to the desert of the real‘, a phrase coined by Baudrillard – his idea is that the simulation has become more real to us than the physical reality. BUT the Tavistock spokesmen in the following clip are taking Baudrillard LITERARLLY, spinning it as if we are now able to bend spoons with out minds, etc. When I read Baudrillard what I got was that he was saying media has become a ‘world wide web’ of simulation – like a CAGE.

Notice they spin it like Baudrillard is supporting their methods….but I don’t think he really is when one evaluates Baudrillard’s work. Just listen to the following speech, where Baudrillard discusses The Murder of the Real, pointing out that when reality is entirely artificial the people in it experience nihilism.