“Simulacra and Simulations” Reaction Essay

Wow! Jean Baudrillard’s text, “Simulacra and Simulations,” is one confusing text.  Usually, when I feel lost or confused about an author’s message, I give them the benefit of the doubt and keep reading—trusting that the author will conclude in a way that brings the text full circle.  I trusted this author and was left dangling from the edge of a literary cliff.  I could find no connection between the introduction and the conclusion.  The examples, which usually aid in understanding, only confused me more.

So, the parking lot of Disneyland is comparable to a concentration camp? Since when are people stripped of their identity, forced into labor, gassed in large chambers, and dumped into mass graves as they walk towards the gates of the park? Beyond the awful and forced comparison, I can see many logical ways that Disneyland blurs the lines between reality and a simulated reality.  One example I can think of is the different countries represented in Disneyworld’s Epcot Center. Different countries, like Italy for example, are presented in a way that represents and enforces stereotypical foods, colors, stores, and people from the region; it is a simulation of the country.

Another example, which I think took away from the argument, was the whole section about God. I’m not even going there.

As I read the text, I was constantly trying to come up with my own examples. As I struggled through the section on the Army, I remembered a recent news story I read. It was about a new recruitment tool that the Army is using to appeal to a younger generation of men: videogames. Although the Army has recruitment centers that feature full size rifles and giant LCD screens to play with/on, the game is also available online at http://www.americasarmy.com/ .  This recruitment tactic is an example of simulacrum because it portrays a real-life, violent environment, without the reality of PTSD, loss of limbs, disfigurement, or death.  This is a very dangerous blurring of the lines between reality and animated, simulated reality: “a strategy of the real, neo-real and hyperreal, whose universal double is a strategy of deterrence” (Baudrillard). When I first saw this report, I was astonished that this is even a legal way to recruit people. 

Also, I’m not sure but there seemed to be several words that I looked up in the dictionary, but were not listed.  One example was notmn.  I also noticed that every time the word artificial appeared, it was displayed art)ficial.  Is this some kind of error in the hypertext, or a deliberate message? I’m not certain, but I thought I should mention the discrepancies.