Date: Wed, 20 Sep 95 16:57:09 PDT Subject: Re: The Shadow of the Shadow of the SILENT Majorities On Wed, 20 Sep 1995 15:06:09 -0500 (CDT) you wrote: >I am here, in my simulated cyber-form. > >I know nothing of the last reading, but am currently reading Sim/Sim for >a graduate seminar and would like or would be willing to start things off >on that track. > >Anyone else interested? I really enjoyed that book. Here, you might appreciate this, although I don't know if it's any good, it's excerpted from a larger paper. In Baudrillard's essay entitled Simulations, he presents the idea that "simulation" follows on the heals of two previous orders of appearance, evolving since the time of the Renasissance. The first order, "parallel to the mutations of the law of value" was the Counterfeit. This was the "dominant scheme of the "classical" period from the renaissance to the industrial revolution." Following this era was the era of Production which dated the industrial period. And now we have moved into the culminating period with the present scheme of Simulation which is "controlled by the code."(24) Simulation is marked by the "liquidation of all referentials -- worse: by their artificial resurrection in a system of signs...[the] substitution [of] signs of the real for the real itself, that is, an operation to deter every real process by its operational double."(25) The simulation, in its opposition to representation, befogs the distinction "between `true' and `false', between `real' and `imaginary.'"(26) Representation takes the sign and the real to be equivalent, and it views simulation as false representation. Simulation, instead, immures representation within itself, taking representation to be "itself a simulacrum."(27) The representation to the simulacrum flows then through the phases of reflecting then masking and perverting reality. This then emerges as the masking of the absence of reality; finally the representation becomes something with no relation to reality; "it is its own pure simulacrum."(28) This then precludes the ability to separate the true from the false; "the real from its artifical resurrection."(29) We need this artificial resurrection because we need to have a past, visible in its continuum, providing a beginning, "a visible myth of origin to reassure us as to our ends."(30) But within this false risorgimento of beginning and ending, there is an appropriation of the disinterred past; offering claims of connectedness which justify the present. In other words, the present is not built upon the bones of the past, but rather, the past is constructed on the withering all-but-dead corpse of the present. By seeing the past; by cumulating the apparition of the past, we ensure continuance of the linearity and additory nature of the culture.(31) But the cleanliness of this false resurrection is not always the case. When contradictions between the present and past arrise, as they inevitably must do, there arise two solutions. First, exterminate the past so that the evidence of the contradiction between reality and a universal law are obliterated, or, secondly, to convert the past until it becomes an implication of the present, which in effect offers the same result as the first solution.(32) Thereby, we see in the relationship between the present and a past, an unclean and unconscionable relation of force. This relation, however, is hidden behind a moral superstructure which guarantees not only the continual resuscitation of the relations of force, but also the constant regeneration of public morality in support of the resuscitation.(33) Yet, the most potent force within this interaction is the principle of public morality. Even indignations and denunciations of the relations of force, themselves revive moral order, and represent the "indifferent and shifting configuration [of relations of force] in the moral and political consciousness of men."(34) Thus, relations of force--rationality and morality--as Baudrillard conceives, is nothing but a scandal which openly and actively promotes and allows itself to be combatted, provided that the scandal is both received and combatted in the name of rationality and morality. Therefore, because the solution to the scandal is the scandal itself, the task today is conceal the fact that no scandal exists.(35) Again, we can say that "the defense of the criterion imposed invokes the criterion again or it appeals to another criterion itself in need of grounding."(36) And more scandalous, power--every form of power--denies itself. It speaks of its own dolor and the menace it faces. Through these protestations to its imperilled existence, it is able to "rediscover a glimmer of existence and legitimacy." Even more glorious are those occurances when the `mannequins of power' are in reality murdered, for then the simulacrum of the menace to a fragile and threatened power truly becomes more real than real.(37) Indeed, power always displays and represents the menace to its existence as real, even if this isn't the case. This is because "transgression and violence are serious, for they contest the distribution of the real. Simulation is infinetely more dangerous, however, since it always suggests, over and above its object, that law and order themselves might really be nothing more than a simulation."(38) Therefore, simulations must always be taken to be real in order to protect the distribution of power. However, through this process the real becomes a sign--a simulation--as "they are inscribed in advance in the decoding and orchestration rituals of the media, anticipated in their mode of presentation and possible consequences. In brief, they function as a set of signs dedicated exclusively to their recurrence as signs, and no longer to their `real' goal at all."(39) Thus, power lives by the simulation of its simulation. Power provides a map without territory.(40) Power "injects realness and referentiality everywhere, in order to convince us of the reality of the social, of the gravity of the economy, of the finalities of production."(41) Power illustrates to us what threatens its existence, and then, like it does with history, it produces that which it references. Today power is thus threatened by the simulations it has created; it is threatened by the prospect of itself "vanishing in the play of signs," and so it risks everything. "It gambles on remanufacturing artificial, social, economic [and] political stakes,"(42) for it will surely die without these threats. Thus, "in the end the game of power comes down to nothing more than the critical obsession with power--an obsession with its death, an obsession with its survival, the greater the more it disappears."(43) This process--this obsession--is, as it were, controlled by "a sort of genetic code, which controls the mutation of the real into the hyperreal." This controlling code is that which we call the `media.'(44) It is through this `absolute manipulation' the the political, social, psychological domains loose their distinction between reality and simulation. The media, then, "only exist to maintian the illusion of actuality--of the reality of the stakes, of the objectivity of the facts."(45) However, more than simply presenting lies as facts and facts as lies, this manipulation by power transfers itself from the representation of meaning to the `programming' of perceptions and knowledges about reality.(46) While power creates law and creates order, with the purpose of maturating "planned infalibility, of maximal security and deterrence," it cannot rely upon these exclusively because of the "aura of transgression" arising from law, and the "aura of violence" arising from order. Therefore, through the programming of perceptions, power creates social and individual norms, which casts opposition to power into a state of induced sleep, confusion and dumbfoundedness.(47) And through the creation of these norms, power is capable of erasing its beginning, its origin. By geneticising its existence through norms, it more thoroughly encodes its own removal from time and space, and therefore of the obligations it made as well as putting an end to the myth of its own end.(48) Thus, from the point of successfully encoding the norms in the genetics of individuals and society, the media ends its programming for the ends of power and begins to test the observer in order to assure the successful existence of power. Opinion poles, those great servants of the public, create the opinions they are searching for--individuals luckily are freed from the laborious task of producing opinions on their own.(49) Rather than conscious thought, we only need to reproduce the opinions which we were told we had. Then, through the mechanisms of order and law, but also through the norms themselves, those who have been insufficiently or incorrectly programmed are weeded out by the institutions and individuals who can easily spot deviations.(50) However, through the process of providing a voice to everyone--by granting universal suffrage--power is capable of giving the illusion of responsiveness, even though it has created the terms in which it will respond. Moreover, giving everyone a voice, either in their reproduction of prescribed opinions through poles, or through the ballot of inadequate choices, neutralizes the political field "if only by the consensus on the rules of the game." Thus, power creates its own legitimacy, creates the rules which ensures its legitimacy, creates the programming of norms which ensures its legitimacy, creates the definition of what opposes it, and then persecutes that which opposes its legitimacy, and proves that it offered everyone the option of participating in the creation of its legitimacy by parading those who refused play by its prescribed rules. Therefore, power is real not only because it can be reproduced, but because it is "always already reproduced."(51) (24) Simulations. Pg. 83. (25) Ibid. Pg. 4. (26) Ibid. Pg. 5. (27) Ibid. Pg. 11 (28) Ibid. Pg. 11. (29) Ibid. Pg. 12. (30) Ibid. Pg. 19. (31) Ibid. Pg. 19. (32) Ibid. Pg. 20. (33) Ibid. Pg. 27. (34) Ibid. Pg. 28. (35) Ibid. Pg. 28. (36) William Connolly. in Language and Politics (Shapiro, ed.) Pg. 151-152. (37) Baudrillard, Simulations. Pg. 37. (38) Ibid. Pg. 38. (39) Ibid. Pg. 41. (40) Personal conversation with Anne Norton. (41) Simulations. Pg. 42. (42) Ibid. Pg. 44. (43) Ibid. Pg. 45. (44) Ibid. Pg. 55. (45) Ibid. Pg. 71. (46) Ibid. Pg. 57. (47) Ibid. Pg. 63-64. (48) Ibid. Pg. 112. (49) Comments by Professor David Easton during a variety of colloquia in response to practitioners of the statistical manipulation of survey opinion data. (50) Simulations. Pg. 120. Peace, Gyan /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ Scott Penrose-Kafka <spenrose-AT-uci.edu> Program in Political Psychology Department of Politics and Society University of California, Irvine (For PGP Public Key: See end of quotes below) /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ Destroying Knowledge "The time has come, it seems, to face the facts: revolution is movement, but movement is not revolution. Politics is only a gear-shift and revolution only its overdrive" Virilio. "Fear is the cruelest of assassins: It never kills but keeps you from living." An old saying. "Under the Republicans, Man exploits Man. Under the Democrats, it's the other way around." A not-so-old saying. "Empiricism is the matrix of all faults menacing a discourse which continues...to consider itself scientific." Derrida "There is a jubilation proper to spectacular nullity, and the last form it takes is that of *statistical contemplation*" Baudrillard "The obligation to talk with those one would reject imposes an obligatory community where none may be desired, giving the lie to consent and the tollerance of difference. Coerced participation in dialogue, coerced speech, is presented as an invitation to self-expression and equality, yet those who are brought into these against their will have already been denied one aspect of their self-determination. They enter subordinate." Anne Norton "Narrated reality constantly tells us what must be believed and what must be done. What can you oppose to the facts? You can only give in, and obey what they "signify," like an oracle, like the oracle of Delphi. The fabrication of simulacra thus provides the means of producing believers and hence people practicing their faiths." de Certeau "The person who follows others has no trust in himself: that's why he follows others. The man who has trust in himself learns from others but does not follow. He follows his own insight. Whatsoever the risk he never compromises." OSHO "Because modernity is excessively conscious of time, it somehow removes joy from human existence." P.M. Rosenau "[The] arithmetic element of the State found its specific power in the treatment of all kinds of matter: Primary matters (raw materials), the secondary matter of worked objects, or the ultimate matter constituted by the human population. Thus the number has always served to gain mastery over matter, to control its varitations and movements, in other words to submit them to the spatio-temporal framework of the State" Deleuze & Guattari /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ PGP key for Scott Penrose-Kafka -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Version: 2.6.1 mQCNAy+mGv8AAAEEAMjMN3fMQrfZJxoVjRgoHRMGektBjMArLParAKMLsqKh7eBe sxwTtD04BRvZ3vcoMom5t9OGt7zHEgd0mCLgGIIeI7H2F+sX/OrhIe+hURU3SZ4E Kse2yH/fx3nfk9Hm2PR5Cdyz7bsNpWb8n6Hty3OdkjkljMBMRX/SaxYTVobhAAUR tCZTY290dCBQZW5yb3NlLUthZmthIDxzcGVucm9zZUB1Y2kuZWR1Pg==r99t -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ ------------------
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