Applications of Baudrillard to Current Events and Society

Justin Wolfe

HUMT Senior Seminar

Feb. 8 2005

When everything is taken away, nothing is left. This is false.

-Jean Beaudrillard

The Remainder

Life today is a series of remainders

Meaning does not exist in the remainder

Are we, as humans, on an ceaseless quest to find meaning in a world of remainders, where Baudrillard argues that there is no meaning?

Where do we assign meaning?

Events, symbols, ideals

Why do we assign meaning?

Is there really any meaning?

What would Baudrillard say?

The Super Bowl

The Super Bowl is one of the biggest events in the social

and economic structure of modern American society

Super Bowl Facts and Figures

Players' Share: $68,000 to each player of the winning team, $36,500 to each player of the losing team

Cost of the Vince Lombardi Trophy: $25,000 (Made by Tiffany & Co. of New York)

Cost of Super Bowl Rings: $5,000 each (plus adjustments for gold/diamond increases)

Super Bowl Facts and Figures

A 30 second advertisement costs an average of 2.4 million dollars to air during the Super Bowl.

“All original cultural forms, all determined languages are absorbed into advertising because it has no depth, it is instantaneous and instantly forgotten” pg, 87,

Simulacra and Simulation

Super Bowl Facts and Figures

86.1 million people watched the Super Bowl this year alone, a number that is down from previous years.

Why do so many people invest their time into a game? What about this game leads us to search for meaning, and is there any meaning in the game?

The Super Bowl

Is the Super Bowl itself a remainder?

If so, how can it hold any meaning if the remainder itself can have no meaning according to Beaudrillard?

Try looking at the Super Bowl as a social concept.

The Super Bowl

“Who can say if the remainder of the social is the residue of the nonsocialized, or if it is not the social itself that is the remainder, the gigantic waste product?” pg. 144, Simulacra and Simulation

What is the Super Bowl the remainder of in a social context? Are those who are ignorant of the event the

social remainder, or are those who are fervent spectators the residue from the rest of society?

Where do we assign meaning?

Can we assign meaning to this event? Triumph over evil in the form of the opposing

team? A glorification of the human spirit of

competition? Advancement of the human race?

Where do we assign meaning?

Really there is no meaning.

The Super Bowl is simply a simulation of a simulacra. It is our society’s effort to simulate a battle, or a struggle

which never occurred, a simulation of a copy with no original.

Therefore, we can really assign no meaning anywhere to the event, by Baudrillards theory, although we clearly do try and assign a meaning.

Final Thought on the Super Bowl

“The remainder makes you laugh” – pg. 145

Consider the serious problems of the world, Tsunami disaster, AIDS, poverty – in this perspective, is it not somewhat humorous(although disgusting) the amount of money, effort, energy and time is put into the production of this game where nothing is truly accomplished.

Power and Politics

“The Kennedys died because they incarnated something: the political, political substance, whereas the new presidents are nothing but caricatures and fake film.” – pg. 24

“They (new presidents) must efface this defect and this complicity with their simulated murder.” – pg. 23

George W. Bush is the Remainder

“When a system has absorbed everything, when one has added everything up, when nothing remains, the entire sum turns to the remainder and becomes the remainder.” – pg. 144

George W. Bush

Does the President actually hold any power? Or is he just a “Puppet of Power” as Beaudrillard quoted from Clastres (p. 23)

Would it have made any real difference if Bush were not re-elected and instead Kerry was our new president?

Presidential Puppet?

Baudrillard would argue that either way, we are left with the remainder, which really has no meaning, no power.

Kerry would have been the remainder, equal to that of Bush had he been elected.

Presidential Elections

So Presidential Elections have any real meaning? Will they truly effect us as a whole?

“All accumulation is nothing but a remainder, and the accumulation of remainders.” – pg. 146

The remainder doesn’t matter. It has no meaning. There is an absence of meaning. So I think, no, presidential elections will have no distinct impact on the world, if you follow Baudrillard’s reasoning.

Nihilism

“I observe, I accept, I assume, I analyze the second revolution, that of the twentieth century, that of postmodernity, which is the immense process of the destruction of meaning, equal to the earlier destruction of appearances.” – Beaudrillard, p. 161

Where did the meaning go?

Beaudrillard feels that the masses are the direct cause of the loss of meaning in the world. (p. 161)

How did we lose the meaning?

A better question, I feel, is whether or not we still find meaning in anything?

What are some things that are important to us on some level and yet are seemingly meaningless?

Superficiality

Take the example from class, the 20” rims and customized car.

Why are these things important to us?

What meaning do we find in this superficial quest to keep up appearances?

Not only in our automobiles, but look at ourselves. Fashion and/or lack of fashion is a seemingly meaningless idea that we search for some meaning where there is none (Ali-G Example).

Closing Thoughts and Questions

Baudrillard takes a very pessimistic stance.

Life is essentially nothing more than a mundane journey to a path of nothingness through meaningless existence.

How can we argue with the stance that there is no meaning, anywhere?

Closing Thoughts and Questions

I have come up with one argument to pose against Baudrillards Nihilistic viewpoint.

Beaudrillard simply accepts the fact that there is no meaning, and he claims that it is a good thing, because “meaning is mortal.” – p. 164

Closing Thoughts and Questions

What then if I find meaning in even the smallest, insignificant thing.

Does lack of meaning and its mortality give us humanity? How then can he deny any person humanity who can find meaning in even one thing?

Closing Thoughts and Questions

The floor is now open for discussions, as well as any questions anyone would like to ask.

Thank you for listening

Sources

Baudrillard, Jean. Simulacra and Simulation. U of M Press. Michigan: 1994.

http://tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/1,1002,271|93440|1|,00.html

http://tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/1,1002,271|93440|1|,00.html

http://sports.sun-sentinel.com/default.asp?c=sun-sentinel&page=nfl/superbowl/2005/facts_figures.htm