This week's readings of Kipnis and Baudrillard made me question basically everything I know and hold dear after class ended. But not to be discouraged I thought I would think a little deeper into things considering it was so aptly put by Baudrillard that "significance requires reflection".
I understand that the world we live in today is obsessed with perfection (ie Extreme Makeover, constant Ipod updates and the impossible body image thrown at us in magazines). This "false need" (a near impossible need) is a result of what Baudrillard describes as a hyper reality, a simulation of the real. In this space there is an acceleration, a complex simulacra (if you will) that is unavoidable. This is completely terrifying if you spend a day as I have actually paying attention to it. Traffic signs telling you how to drive, menus telling you what you can eat, models showing you how to dress, and news broadcasts telling you what "happened" around the world. Since I gave everything what I felt was "significance" by looking deeper into what I was being bombarded with I found myself sceptical of everything around me. The deceleration of images truly was overwhelming since I couldn't just let myself be indifferent to it all.
Was the news I was watching true? Or simply was the story edited by a Canadian for how he or she (but probably he) wanted us as viewers to view it? But since every simulacra we've ever been exposed to comes with bias and editing to some extent, what then can we ever deem "the truth"? I cannot believe I just typed that...I find philosophy for the birds - too many "what ifs".
We've learned that the people who own the modes of production of "image" are the most powerful - for it is THEM dictating to us the things I have described above. They "know" what I like to eat, drink, wear and do. For when you do pay attention to the image sphere we occupy one main idea does stand out - repetition. Are the coffee shops all that different from one another? Do we really need (like in Tap's shower) six different types of shampoo? Or are these just false needs created by a capitalistic culture industry? But why then, since we are women of agency, popular discrimination and popular selection do we all feel the need to own or be a part of copies after copies after copies of things we are TOLD to like? When I turned about 8 years old and realized that I could make my own decisions without my mother's approval, I don't know about the rest of you, but I decided I was pretty much the most intelligent and correct person I knew. I realized that I could choose for myself what I wanted and what I needed and that felt pretty damn good. So when Kipnis reveals to me that I do in fact exhibit false consciousness, that I may not be a conscious subject or that a thing such as interpellation exists I begin to get a bit defensive. I would hope that my (or anyone of a sound mind's) agency, or in an extreme, an antagonistic discourse would not be merely a provisional act. It would be sad that our attempts at refunctioning the use of raw material for discursive purpose or false representation as unassimilable. Maybe then we should embrace Kipnis' encouragement to "formulating a strategy for the production of a left popular culture". This way the average Jane can put her hair back in that sideways ponytail and resort back to her self involved eight year old revolutionary self and give this image centered world a kick in the pants!
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In your blog, you seem to have difficulties with being able to distinguish "truth" in the simulacra attack we face every day. I believe we've been taught that truth is a singular objective fact that we can all put our finger on and name. But what about personal truths? What if we redefined or un-defined truth so that it was more of a multiple subjective point of view that furthered our own personal gains? If we accept that "truth" is giong to be different for different people and that truth is something that makes sense to someone, and that improves her or his life, then it might be a little bit easier to find our own truths amongst the rubble of simulacra. Yes, what we are presented wtih is altered, reproduced and what have you, but our memories are never 100% accurate either. They are just reproductions of events in our lives.
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