2012SC224 ChristopherJacobi FINAL

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What do Baudrillard’s theories of ‘simulation’ and ‘hyper-

reality’ tell us about the information society?

Christopher Jacobi

This essay rejects the theories of „simulation‟ (Baudrillard,1983:1) and „hyper-reality‟ (1983:2),

but highlights Baudrillard‟s uniquely insightful contribution towards media theory as a

provocateur and critic of the transgressional stages of modernity. Baudrillard‟s main arguments

about postmodernity can be summarized under the term „simulacrum‟ in which signs no longer

represent any reality, implode in their meaning and simulate their own hyper-reality (Baudrillard,

1983:3). Even though these ideas could support the argument that we now live in a qualitatively

new information society, this essay dismisses Baudrillard‟s postmodern simulacrum as

idiosyncratic, passive and epistemologically flawed. Baudrillard declares the „death of god and all

meaning‟ (1983:6), but still insists on the truth of his own writings. The voices of Habermas

(rational debate) and McLuhan (positive technological determinism) are employed to develop

the alternative position of Baudrillard as a provocateur . From this adapted perspective,

Baudrillard can raise our awareness about the negative consequences of a purely quantitative

increase of information,

Baudrillard is generally considered to be a postmodern thinker and his theories of simulation

and hyper-reality have been shaped by his experience of the radical student movement of

1968.1 In many ways, Baudrillard engages with the work of the French philosopher J.F. Lyotard

who has explained postmodernism „as incredulity toward metanarratives‟ (Lyotard, 1984:22).

This means that any attempt to find universal explanations and legitimations of the social and

even material world, Christianity is one of the common examples, will unavoidably become

impossible.2 Postmodernists also challenge modernity on the basis that the grand-narratives that

have previously been the basis to any knowledge claim have diminished with the consequence

that professionals, such as lawyers or politicians, do not really hold more expertise than any

1 The word limit of this essay does not allow space for a detailed and focused discussion of the

important shift between the early and late Baudrillard (1929-2007). Baudrillard‟s early work s like The

System of Objects (1968) or The Consumer Society (1970) can be seen as an extension of critical sociologyof everyday life and as an update of Marxist thought, “exchange value” (Marx, 2001: 4) in particular.

Later works by Baudrillard like Fatal Strategies (1983) or Cool Memories (1987) are distinctively differentin their orientation and promote nihilistic (decisively contra-Marxist) ideas.2 Postmodern work is rooted in German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900). Nietzsche has

been the major prophet of postmodernity and “nihilistic existentialism” (2007: 59).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_from_incredulity#Argument_from_incredulity.2FLack_of_imagination

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_from_incredulity#Argument_from_incredulity.2FLack_of_imagination



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other ordinary person. Postmodernists believe that we now experience an information society

in which the media no longer broadcasts high culture in a one-to-many direction, but that the

media has become more fluent, individualistic and superficial. Lyotard argues that „in order to

discuss knowledge in the most highly developed contemporary society, we must answer the

preliminary question of what methodological representation to apply to that society‟ (Lyotard,

1984:46). This, therefore, stresses the need for new methods of understanding. Lyotard has

declared a „war on totality‟ and the „end of the social‟ (cited in Docherty, 1992:194) and

proclaims that the world is now shaped through „relativist experiences‟ in the form of a

multiplicity of „language games‟ (Lyotard, 1984:33).

This anti-empiricist and anti-Enlightenment view is also shared by Baudrillard, an example of

which can be found in Walter Benjamin‟s

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theory on images and photographs. According toBenjamin art has lost its authenticity since it is no longer situated „in the original aura‟ (Benjamin,

1963:19). Mass media and modern technologies have detached their audience from the

represented reality so that a copy of an image is no longer any less authentic than the original

piece. Postmodern concern with the loss of truth and authenticity, however, has been accused

of a „nostalgia for the pre-modern‟ (Kellner, 2006:24) or „neo-conservative desire for face-to-

face interaction‟ (Poster, 1981:462) as they can seem to defend traditional ideas of the social

world.

Baudrillard has developed his theories of simulation and hyper-reality as a tool to emphasize

the way in which the media, particularly TV, has rendered information meaningless. For

Baudrillard, „simulation is no longer that of a territory, a referential being or a substance. It is

the generation by models of a real without origin or reality: a hyper-real‟ (Baudrillard, 1983:12).

Signs, according to Baudrillard, do not point at any reality, but only at other signs and

significations. This means that signs have lost the representational character with the

consequence that ideological analysis is meaningless since there is no reality to be found behind

any signification. Baudrillard explains the rise of this hyper-real information world with the

„death of god‟ (1983:6) which has caused a „desert of the real‟ (1983:40). The pre-modern way

of life in which god gave ultimate meaning to all representations has been „murdered‟ (1983:13)

and we now experience representations through „substituting signs of the real for the real itself‟

(1983:4). Real meaning, therefore, is ever increasingly imploding in itself to the extent that it is

no longer appropriate to theorize about one media culture or one audience. Baudrillard‟s

3 (1892-1940), German intellectual associated with the Frankfurt school.



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simulacrum also affects wider social issues like social change or politics, for instance, since any

social activity has been rendered impossible through the implosion of meaning into

individualistic simulations.

In addition, Baudrillard takes up Roland Barthes work on semiology and argues that „we are in a

logic of simulation which has nothing to do with a logic of facts and an order of reasons‟

(Baudrillard, 1983:31). The media just simulate more spectacles and there is no truth and

authenticity to be found in anything. Baudrillard goes even further than Lyotard by arguing that

not only the social world has diminished, but also the individual and the self since the modern

meaning of the self has imploded like any other meaning in this world. The consequences of

hyper-reality are that information or knowledge can be nothing more than „noise‟ (Baudrillard,

1988a:96) or indifferent disturbances. In the Ecstasy of Communication, Baudrillard (1988b:44)argues that television has created a world of „obscenity and transparency‟, but his more striking

interpretation of the media is that he subscribes to a very narrow and one-dimensional view of

passivity among the audience. Baudrillard assumes the audience to be in a state of „inertia‟.

Whereas he acknowledges inactivity as some form of resistance, a Baudrillardian audience

would necessarily be passive and has no opportunity to attach meaning to the simulacrum of

information society. Douglas Kellner has extended this line of Baudrillardian thought to the fact

that Baudrillard leaves us in a state of „nebulous nihilism‟ (Kellner, 1994:238) since information

and signification would diminish the audience‟s potential to learn about new content and gain

real knowledge.

One of Baudrillard‟s most famous case studies is his analysis of Disneyland through which he

illustrates his theory of simulacrum: „Disneyland is presented as imaginary in order to make us

believe that the rest is real, whereas Los Angeles is no longer real, but belongs to the hyper-

real order and to the order of simulation‟ (Baudrillard, 1988a:88). According to Baudrillard

(1988a), therefore, Disneyland would already have become more real than the USA or on the

other hand the USA has never been genuinely real in the first place. The way in which

Baudrillard takes such dramatic statements about the social world as seen in his view that one

can no longer distinguish between reality and signification remains critical since he does not

provide any empirical justification or critical theory. Another contemporary application of

Baudrillardian information society can be found in the video game industry: Within the last two

years there has been a „dramatic shift from high-end, time and investment intensive‟ PC games

towards casual, mobile gaming applications on devices such as smartphones (Brown, 2011:10).



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Whereas video games like „Half-Life‟ or „Act of War‟ were expensive productions with realistic

graphics and developed storylines, more playful but also less sophisticated low-budget games

have now become more popular. It is in line with Baudrillard that even video games, which are

unreal to begin with, seem to ever increasingly deteriorate towards indifference and mere

playfulness.

It is worthwhile to contrast Baudrillard with Jürgen Habermas‟ defence of rational

communication and optimistic vision of the „public sphere‟ (Habermas, 1990:52). Whereas both

theorists are concerned with the state of modernity and tried to apply contemporary theory,

they come to very different conclusion: For Habermas, „modernity is an unfinished project‟

(Habermas, 1990:73) in which we can still apply rational thought and communication towards

our social world and its institutions. Habermas also takes the arts as an example of the debateabout modernity and says that:

„The modern still retains a secret connection to the classical. The classical has always

signified that which endures the ages. The emphatically modern artistic product no longer

derives its power from the authority of a past age, owes it solely to the authenticity of a

contemporary relevance that has now become past. It is modernity itself that creates its

own classical status - thus we can speak today of classical modernity ’ . (Habermas, 1990:40)

Modernity, for Habermas, can have real value, carry true knowledge and significance and is in

some aspects linked to the past. This is in sharp contrast to Baudrillard‟s simulacrum since

Habermas argues that our contemporary existence can have genuine meaning and can be

understood through rationality. Habermas does not ignore new changes such as avant-garde art,

but he shows how classical, in the sense of universal, art can be created at any point in time.

Baudrillard, however, would presumably acknowledge the division between classical

Renaissance and modernity, but argue that postmodernity cannot be a continuation of changes

and that postmodernity must be a radical discontinuity.

Whereas Habermas offers ways of promoting democracy in the form „ideal speech situations‟

(Villa, 1992:718) and the public sphere, there is hardly any practical application towards

Baudrillard‟s hyper-reality since it only reflects back to Baudrillard himself. For instance,

Baudrillard claims that „You [the reader] are news, you are the social, the event is you, you are

involved, you use your voice, etc.‟ (Baudrillard, 1983:55). Considering that the self is a

simulation in Baudrillard‟s argument as well, this proves to be an extremely individualistic andidiosyncratic theory since all of Baudrillard‟s writing can only declare Baudrillard as the ultimate



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truth. Habermas, in contrast, is concerned with „truth, freedom and justice‟ (Poster, 1981:465),

„mutual understanding‟ (Villa, 1992:714) and ways of defeating „scarcities of meaning‟ (Villa,

1992:716) by social agreement. Whereas Habermas provides the model of a „public sphere in

which open debate would provide the conditions of qualitative social change‟ (Poster, 1981:466),

Baudrillard sees postmodernity as the end stage of a complete surrender to passivity. Habermas

work shows that Baudrillard leaves the world in a state of nihilism and relativism in which the

only truth left is Baudrillard himself. Since such idiosyncratic theory that also denies any

possibility of activity, change, resistance and critical thought must not be accepted, Baudrillard

should be seen as a provocateur instead.

One can also find some common foundations among Marshall McLuhan and Baudrillard, but in a

similar way to the relationship with Habermas, Baudrillard arrives at new and opposingconclusions: McLuhan and Baudrillard both write about the increase of information and the

effects modern mass media have brought, but they make very different interpretations.

McLuhan highlights the global explosion of mass media in the late stages of modernity, but for

Baudrillard the important characteristic about this explosion of mass media is the concomitant

„implosion of all meaning‟ (Baudrillard, 1988a:121). Kellner has pointed out that for Baudrillard

the „media are key simulation machines which reproduces images, signs, and codes which

constitute an autonomous realm of hyper-reality and the obliteration of the social‟ (Kellner,

2006:28), whereas McLuhan sees the pure increase of media as a positive development. We can

therefore find some hope and optimism in McLuhan‟s positive attitude towards technological

innovations that can in fact shape the social world (positively). In contrast, Baudrillard shows

that the mass media only ‘ fabricate non communication‟ and that in fact more media will only

lead to more simulations of imploded meaning (Baudrillard, 1988a:170). The increase of mass

media on a global scale will not unite the world towards McLuhan‟s „global village‟ (cited in

Kellner, 1994:21), but only intensify the loss of the last resorts of meaning and leave nothing

other than hyper-reality.

It becomes clear that Baudrillard only identifies an increase of noise and disturbances in modern

media and that one must adapt McLuhan‟s phrase „the medium is the message‟ (McLuhan,

1964:8) to a Baudrillardian statement that the medium is a simulation in itself. Nonetheless,

there is a similarity to McLuhan in Baudrillard‟s equally limited understanding of the role of

audience since both subscribe towards a one-dimensional flow of the media. New media

technologies like social networking websites, according to an interpretation of Braudillard as a



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provocateur, would be seen as irrelevant since they can only create even more meaningless

simulations: There is a real danger that users of Web 2.0 only engage in narrow spheres and

superficiality without real political ambitions. McLuhan would probably have been less critical

about the new mass media. At this stage it is important to understand Baudrillard‟s origin which

Huyssen sees as symbolic exchange „in which simulation has replaced production, that

contemporary culture has gone beyond the classical Marxist use of value/exchange value

distinction to consumerism‟ (Huyssen, 1989:7). It is more sustainable, however, not to accept

Baudrillard‟s statement that „if we could accept this meaninglessness of the world, then we

could play with forms, appearances and our impulses, without worrying about their ultimate

destination‟ (Baudrillard, 1988a:128) since acceptance of a state of nihilism is a political

statement in itself.

Approaching Baudrillard as a provocateur rather than critical theorist per se inspires intriguing

insights into some of the most striking features of our advanced stages of modernity. Applying

Baudrillard towards the issue of British public schools as a provocateur, it becomes apparent

how many traditional boarding schools are defendants of a traditional-modern form of reality in

which hierarchy, gender and knowledge have clearly defined boundaries, but are increasingly

challenged by global curricula, international students and the influence of mass media. Bloland

argues that (in higher education institutions), „academic disciplines based on traditional

metanarratives find their border dissolving and that the bases for their hierarchical structure

attenuate‟ (Bloland, 1995:537). Similarly, public schools traditionally encouraged students to

study so called hard subjects like Mathematics or Classics, whereas the influence of

international students and new curricula like the International Baccalaureate increasingly

challenges these presuppositions. International students often choose their boarding school

based on the media representation of these schools accepting that they will consume a

simulation of elite education and status that does not necessarily represent reality. A

Baudrillardian simulacrum fails to express that a school is still based on some education

philosophy that has real effects on the social diversity of the school. If everything was a

simulation, schools would not increasingly have to invest in scholarships to promote social

diversity and mobility. Such insights can only come from reading Baudrillard as a provocateur .

One can therefore understand William Merrin‟s defensive remarks of Baudrillard‟s theory as

„speculated to death‟ (Merrin, 2005:96). Merrin shows how Baudrillard‟s theory becomes

obsolete through its own simulation, but still provides tools and ideas for analysing the current

world.



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To conclude, Baudrillard is a stimulating and relevant writer if approached as a provocateur

rather than media theorist. His theories of simulation and hyper-reality do offer insights into

the potential danger of information society and the possible implosion of some layers of

traditional meaning with the consequence of a decline towards indifference and superficiality

among today‟s audiences. Baudrillard must be criticised for epistemological shortcoming, naïve

views on the audience and an ignorance of the importance of social resistance, activity and

rational debate. It remains dubious whether Baudrillard has intended to be a provocateur by

exaggerating his argument or whether the rejection of Baudrillard‟s simulacrum just leaves no

other choice. At the very least, Baudrillard‟s simulation and hyper-reality are useful as

provocations in themselves and therefore useful to understand contemporary changes in the

media world. Baudrillard, however, does not prove that we now live in a qualitatively differentinformation society.



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