Scan barcode
lizardcha's review against another edition
5.0
Fascinating read. Had to revisit again and again to really get to the heart of his words.
chaoticrebxl's review against another edition
challenging
informative
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
3.0
rawx's review against another edition
3.0
Out of date and full of made up stuff. Interesting read and partly usable as food-for-thought, though, regarding contemporary issues surrounding "Fake News" and media manipulation, distortions of perceived reality by media mechanics and so forth. These ideas need an update.
spncr_a's review against another edition
4.0
-Obsolescence of the Other.
-Obsolescence of reality.
-Obsolescence of death.
-Obsolescence of reality.
-Obsolescence of death.
msand3's review against another edition
5.0
With the death of Baudrillard ten years ago (has it really been that long?), the world lost perhaps the one post-Marxist voice that could have spoken most directly to the global crises we have faced in the last decade, from the world financial meltdown in the late-aughts to the global shift towards isolationism, nationalism, and populism in the past two years. Thankfully, we still have his writings, including this posthumous publication that gathers some of his last lectures (and one interview) before his death. Reading these words written twelve years ago can be startling. Baudrillard could have been writing in 2017. In some cases, his words ring more true today than they did in 2005.
It would be impossible for me to summarize these lectures, but perhaps I can hit the high points that seem most pertinent to me as an American reader in 2017. In Baudrillard's estimation, power has "ransacked" irony and parody, leaving us with only the ghost of truth. As a result, a dominant power can state its evil intentions in the open, or in the words of Baudrillard, "admit its 'crime' in broad daylight." Once the authority in power reveals its own corruption, then it upends any attempt at denunciation of those crimes. It's a stark revelation that speaks to the heart of Trumpism in the United States. Baudrillard answers the question we in the United States have been asking ourselves for months: how can such lies be espoused daily with no accountability? The answer: by stating their intention to lie quite openly, the administration has taken away the only weapon that Truth has: denunciation. Baudrillard offers a sobering analysis: critical intelligence, as developed throughout the Enlightenment and modernity, is no longer able to counter the evil of power because radicalness is on the side of evil. If a system of hegemony can only be tackled from the inside (which, according to Baudrillard, is different from an order of domination, which can be toppled from the outside), then Good is necessarily stifled (at best) or can only take on the voice of Evil (at worst); therefore, "only evil can speak to evil now -- evil is a ventriloquist."
The only recourse is that Enlightenment thinking must be abandoned. Power itself must be abolished -- not just the refusal to be dominated, but the refusal to dominate. Unfortunately, this can never happen through critical thought (including Baudrillard's own writing, which he freely admits). "Intelligence cannot, can never be in power," Baudrillard concludes, "because intelligence consists of this double refusal."
His prophetic words touch on everything from the split in Europe (which we are seeing play out twelve years later) to the rise of populism in the United States: "Absorbing the negative continues to be the problem. When the emancipated slave internalizes the master, the work of the negative is abolished. Domination becomes hegemony. Power can show itself positively and overtly in good conscience and complete self-evidence. It is unquestionable and global." At the time of his writing, he mentions the election of a celebrity -- Arnold Schwarzenegger -- as an example of the hegemonic order existing "deep in the masquerade, where politics is only a game of idolatry and marketing...This is the destiny of contemporary politicians -- those who live by the show will die by the show." If Baudrillard were alive today, he would agree that we are in the midst of dying by that very "show" on a level that makes Arnold Schwarzenegger seem quaint.
I am tempted to go on quoting the book and pointing to examples where Baudrillard was right on the mark, but instead, I will just offer my high recommendation. Read the book for yourself and marvel at Baudrillard's uncanny insight.
It would be impossible for me to summarize these lectures, but perhaps I can hit the high points that seem most pertinent to me as an American reader in 2017. In Baudrillard's estimation, power has "ransacked" irony and parody, leaving us with only the ghost of truth. As a result, a dominant power can state its evil intentions in the open, or in the words of Baudrillard, "admit its 'crime' in broad daylight." Once the authority in power reveals its own corruption, then it upends any attempt at denunciation of those crimes. It's a stark revelation that speaks to the heart of Trumpism in the United States. Baudrillard answers the question we in the United States have been asking ourselves for months: how can such lies be espoused daily with no accountability? The answer: by stating their intention to lie quite openly, the administration has taken away the only weapon that Truth has: denunciation. Baudrillard offers a sobering analysis: critical intelligence, as developed throughout the Enlightenment and modernity, is no longer able to counter the evil of power because radicalness is on the side of evil. If a system of hegemony can only be tackled from the inside (which, according to Baudrillard, is different from an order of domination, which can be toppled from the outside), then Good is necessarily stifled (at best) or can only take on the voice of Evil (at worst); therefore, "only evil can speak to evil now -- evil is a ventriloquist."
The only recourse is that Enlightenment thinking must be abandoned. Power itself must be abolished -- not just the refusal to be dominated, but the refusal to dominate. Unfortunately, this can never happen through critical thought (including Baudrillard's own writing, which he freely admits). "Intelligence cannot, can never be in power," Baudrillard concludes, "because intelligence consists of this double refusal."
His prophetic words touch on everything from the split in Europe (which we are seeing play out twelve years later) to the rise of populism in the United States: "Absorbing the negative continues to be the problem. When the emancipated slave internalizes the master, the work of the negative is abolished. Domination becomes hegemony. Power can show itself positively and overtly in good conscience and complete self-evidence. It is unquestionable and global." At the time of his writing, he mentions the election of a celebrity -- Arnold Schwarzenegger -- as an example of the hegemonic order existing "deep in the masquerade, where politics is only a game of idolatry and marketing...This is the destiny of contemporary politicians -- those who live by the show will die by the show." If Baudrillard were alive today, he would agree that we are in the midst of dying by that very "show" on a level that makes Arnold Schwarzenegger seem quaint.
I am tempted to go on quoting the book and pointing to examples where Baudrillard was right on the mark, but instead, I will just offer my high recommendation. Read the book for yourself and marvel at Baudrillard's uncanny insight.
va87's review
3.0
A brief late-period Baudrillard from Semiotext covering the usual ground of Evil, terrorism, machines and the end of power and politics. Nowhere near as somber and elusive as Why Hasn't Everything Already Disappeared? from the same period, and actually quite conventional as far as Baudrillard goes, with "From Domination to Hegemony" slotting in easily amongst anything left-wingers have published in recent decades. Still some barbs here and there: "Now you must fight against everything that wants to help you."
More...