110.
Hyperreality
I now interpret Baudrillard as saying that in present
culture we focus on the signifier, the word, and have lost sight of what it is
supposed to signify, refer to. Our images and verbal constructions, still
inspired somehow by reality, become footloose from what they are about. The
signifier steals the show, shoving the signified off-stage. What matters is no
longer so much what is said as how one says it. Not what is true but what is
interesting or exciting. Not arguments but opinions. This, Baudrilllard
acknowledges, goes back to Marshall McLuhan’s slogan that the medium is the
message.
So what is new? The signifier/word has always stood apart
from the signified/referent: it is never a true, complete representation of the
signified. As we acknowledge since the philosopher Kant, we can never know and
represent reality as it is in itself. As we acknowledge since the philosopher
Wittgenstein, words are not a true representation of underlying thought. In
some religions images of God are forbidden because if they truly represent God
then God is no longer transcendent and if they do not faithfully represent him
they mislead us.
Baudrillard claimed that under the impact of present
information-and-communication technology, reality is replaced by hyperreality.
That simulates reality, offering an idealized, more exciting, ecstatic
reality, a lie that is better than truth.
Again, what is new? Art, literature, theatre, and music have
always deliberately idealized, reduced, distilled, and transformed reality as
we perceive it. Its purpose indeed is, and always has been, to provide a
hyperreality, exploring possible or stylized worlds. This serves as a mental
exploration that stimulates intellectual and moral imagination, formation of
ideas, and shifts of meaning. As discussed in items 5 and 92 it helps to
simulate the consequences of possible actions, to explore morality.
It does, however, seem to be the case that we have
moved further into hyperreality. An example of hyperreality, given by Rick
Roderick is the ‘Swiss garden’, where one finds Swiss cuckoo clocks, mountain
scenes, costumes and food all brought together conveniently, to be visited
without the bother of actually travelling to Switzerland. Another example was
that of the shark from the film ‘Jaws’, more enticing and interesting than any
real shark. Also, you don’t exist unless you are on TV, so people hype up to
get there, reducing considered opinion to a slogan, turning character into
caricature.
What, if anything, is wrong with all this? When we give up on the groping for reality we surrender argument and facts to emotions and opinions. Facts, imperfect as they are, help to tie us to reality. When we disregard facts reality indeed disappears.
Next to reality, identity also is lost, Baudrillard claims.
I will consider that in the following item.
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