Date: Fri, 29 Sep 95 21:11:00 UTC
Subject: dab->Disney/Capital Corp.


Reply to message 4954334 from OWNER-BAUDRILLARD-AT-JEFFERSON.VILL on 09/29/95
10:09AM
 
hi, am new to this list, so i hope you all don't mind me just jumping in, but i
wanted to comment on what douglas brown said:
 
 "digest of the American way of life" only acts as a blanket that covers the
"fact that
the real is no longer the real" (13), with his discussion of capital.
Perhaps this is in itself a re-doubling effect.  TV (mass media) and
Disneyland united!  What irony!
 
yet, television creates a reality of its own, that is seperate...i see it
on-line all the time, where people often pay money to be able to discuss the
characters or plots of their favorite television shows, or movies, and in fact,
debates can reage on controversial movies like pocahontas.  so the reality that
is formed, is a new reality, and the discussions are based on the relaity that
is created by the television show.
 
mr born then goes on to say...
 
Then, Baud loses me a bit: "Capital, in fact, was never linked by a
contract (literal?) to the society it dominates.  It is a sorcery of
social relations, it is a *challenge to society*, and it must be
responded to as such" (15).  Does this mean the rules are merely
*implied* and that the contract is not what dominates us, but we are the
ones which authored the contract by engaging in capitalism?
I've moved along into the text, and found some answer in teh Hypermarket
chapter...but am still a bit vague on this.
 
Later in this chapter he comments that capital "does nothing but multiply
the *signs* and accelerate the play of simulation.  This I "get", the
excess of meanig given to *things* that otherwise have no meaning, and I
see how captial does this (esp. with cars, homes, and clothing).
 
 
i think you are correct in your assumption that rules are implied, i mean,
despite what baudrillard may claim, we are living in a post-modenr society, and
there is no overarching ideal controlling our societies.  the idea is that
capitalism superimposes itself on us, especailly with the advent of
globalization.  globalism forces the ideas of the ocmpany on the people,
wihtout their say, or necessarily their agreement.  in much the way that, for
marx, calvinism prepared people for capitalism, television(and
disneyland/world) prepares us for this new breed of capitalism.  by making us
passive, and discouraging critical analyses of situations.
 
i think this is enough for my first post, so i will end, until i see how badly
my ideas are ripped apart ;+}.
 
allan liska
university of maryland
 

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