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I was sad to hear of Baudrillard's death - he was the one philosopher who seemed to have much of any relevance to say about the modern world. I guess The Matrix is one of the more cartoonish aspects of how his ideas have filtered into the mainstream but, beyond that, there's a whole attitude - from The Power of Nightmares to Charlie Brooker's Screen Wipe - that's descended in some indirect way from the profound unease and distrust his writing identifies and manifests.
Along with The Communist Manifesto, The Gulf War Did Not Take Place is probably one of the most exciting and engaging expressions of a philosopical worldview I can think of.
quote:It is for these writings that he received a full-chapter denunciation from the physicist Alan Sokal (along with Jean Bricmont), due to his alleged misuse of physical concepts of linear time, space and stability. His argument can be summarised as being an attempted subversion of the thesis of Francis Fukuyama that the collapse of Soviet Communism brought humanity to the 'end of History' whereby the world's global dialectical machinations had been resolved with the triumph of liberal capitalism. In contrast to this, Baudrillard maintained that the 'end of History', in terms of a teleogical goal, had always been an illusion brought about by modernity's will towards progress, civilization and rational unification.
These people should just start a thread on TMO. They'd soon have the whole mess sorted out, and they'd get to decide which flavour of crisps is Winner.
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quote:Pop culture paid tribute to Baudrillard's prescience in Andy and Larry Wachowski's 1999 film The Matrix, about a near-future Earth where human society is a simulation designed by malign machines to keep us enslaved. Hacker hero Neo (Keanu Reeves) hides his contraband software in a hollowed-out copy of one of the philosopher's books, and rebel chief Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) quotes Baudrillard's most famous formula: "Welcome to the desert of the real."
Baudrillard was invited to collaborate on the sequels, but declined. He later protested wryly that The Matrix had got him wrong: "The most embarrassing part of the film is that the new problem posed by simulation is confused with its classical, Platonic treatment ... The Matrix is surely the kind of film about the matrix that the matrix would have been able to produce."
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quote:Originally posted by dang65: These people should just start a thread on TMO. They'd soon have the whole mess sorted out, and they'd get to decide which flavour of crisps is Winner.
quote: Added: Thursday, 8 March, 2007, 13:12 GMT 13:12 UK “John Inman was a truly classic commedian and although he was 'Gay' it was never in your face which made it so much more acceptable.” Dee, Winchester
Not that you deserve it, but there you have it. sighs Back when I was on handbag, my repartee used to meet with genuine rewards. I had cybersex with a stripper one time. Here everything I say is met with deathly silence, and then you all continue talking amongst yourselves.
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I just read a few of those Have your Gay comments (nice touch btw, b33b) and there seems to be some confusion over the name of his partner. Was it Roy? Stephen?
Inman - putting it about right to the end, gord blessim.
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