Jean Baudrillard's "Symbolic Exchange & Death" (Part 2)

[@kostaborojevic498]

The Marlin Dietrich quote was really good and true.

[@JAMAICADOCK]

Death is curious in modern culture, in that it neither holds the dread or release of previous epochs. In that we are all immortal now, so fear of our deaths being meaningless is rendered obsolete by technology. We are now all recorded for posterity, either playing small or large roles in the simulacrum , in which future generations will see us perfectly preserved. In fact we are drifting into a realm, wherein formally only aristocrats, the rich and the famous resided, the realm of the immortal image. And as such our mortal bodies take on less significance than the ghost we leave behind, the legacy, the image, the profile/ in the latter case, the dead as if stuck in limbo on their Facebook pages. Once we rob death of its final word, it loses its potency. it's dreadfulness - thus all its symbolic power is reduced. It bows before the exponential rise of information like everything else. So like aristocrats and the wealthy, it matters more to die well, to die having contributed to the family, the estate, the nation etc than to have lived a dull existence.. Or even a short infamous life is preferable to a dull existence. The real death now, is not the physical act of dying, but to live in obscurity, to never have had made a mark. To not have mattered. A fate worse than death for a growing number of people - who choose to throw their lives away for fifteen minutes of fame or infamy. . To exist outside hyper reality is the real death today, as one of the living dead as it were. The people who find themselves stuck in the real world rather than the virtual.

[@TheoryPhilosophy]

I love love love it

[@OjoRojo40]

What are Baudrillard's thoughts (and yours) on China and the unique party system?? How is it possible that it has survive for so long, linked with the idea of the perfect monopoly being dual. Thanks!

[@hyperrealhandgrenade6578]

I imagine that even though there is one party is within China, they define themselves against the capitalist west, and so the duopoly is still in effect.

[@OjoRojo40]

Hi, thanks for the video! At 32:07 you mentioned you will come back to what Baudrillard said about 9/11 but never did :(

[@TheoryPhilosophy]

Ya either that was another episode called The Spirit of Terrorism. Or, it's in another one of the Symbolic Exchange and Death episodes when he mentions the significance of the twin towers. Maybe the 3rd episode??

[@OjoRojo40]

@@TheoryPhilosophy Nop I saw the whole series of Symbolic Exchange and it's not there, I'll check Spirit of Terrorism. Thank!

[@TheoryPhilosophy]

@@OjoRojo40 H mm because he does talk about WTC in SE. I'll check later to see if I can find it.

[@OjoRojo40]

@@TheoryPhilosophy Hey it was indeed in Spirit of Terrorism (y) Thanks for your help and great content!.

[@thisisfractopia]

Fascinating. JB's ideas on the socio-psychology of symbols both intentional and emergent are often stunningly intuitive, though at times he takes positions reminiscent of sympathetic magic.

[@TheoryPhilosophy]

Well maybe we need some magic right now!

[@JAMAICADOCK]

In primitive societies, the hunter honours the slain animal in a ritual. The animal spirit is venerated. With feudalism the sacrificial offering of the animal is to the gods, who manage the seasons from their celestial abodes. With industrialization, and capitalism, the hidden hand of the market is venerated, as if its omnipresent invisible god. But what are the sacrifices? Generally the working class. Sacrificed to the new gods of technology.

[@TheoryPhilosophy]

Calasso says that when "a laboratory explodes, the memory of sacrifice is revived."

[@MrHerzog333]

With industrialization, and capitalism there are no sacrifices; there is a constant accumulation and re-investment into expanded reproduction of the system. The sacrifice comes at the very end when the system destroys itself. This is why, in his article on Georges Bataille, "When Bataille Attacked the Metaphysical Principle of Economy" (1976), Baudrillard says that capitalism is an "unfinished sacrifice".

[@JAMAICADOCK]

@@MrHerzog333 Which fits Baudrillard's mobius strip logic. No alpha or omega - just spiraling systems on the way to some future collapse, which according to Baudrillard will never come, because the collapse will be too real by half. But capitalism still has its sacrificial offerings, which come following crises of capital in the form of scapegoats. Muslims, Migrants etc The gods of capitalism demand scapegoats. They won't be blamed for the collapse. They must be protected. Like back in the day, a famine, a hurricane etc just line up the sacrifices to appease the gods, assuage the anger of the mob.

[@MrHerzog333]

@@JAMAICADOCK Well, in the Mirror of Production he says that modern war, destruction of commodities, and consumer society are not sacrifices because they serve the "expanded reproduction of the system". I recommend you read or re-read the Mirror of Production and Symbolic Exchange and Death right after Accursed Share Vol 1. by Georges Bataille. This is a central idea that Baudrillard comes back to: "Anything that purges the accursed share in itself signs its own death warrant." Capital, or political economy are like the belly of Ubu Roi getting bigger until they break the branch on which they sit. As the Aztecs said, "Once you lose the sacrificial altar, the whole world becomes the altar"

[@JAMAICADOCK]

@@MrHerzog333 The Aztecs used sacrifice to replenish the land. to water the crops etc And the idea being the sun would not rise if not placated with blood, a common theme in ancient societies. But in essence what was really happening were the kings deferring their own sacrifice onto a scapegoat. The crops didn't fail because the king was wrong, it failed because the gods needed more blood, usually from neighboring tribes. I certainly see this cycle alive and well under capitalism. the tree of Liberty being watered with the blood of tyrants as Jefferson put it. A sacrificial culture that has become more pronounced since the end of the Cold War - with the media gloating over the bodies of Qaddafi and his son in a meat-locker. And fascism which inevitably grows from capital's failure, is naturally finding sacrificial offerings in the form of Muslims, migrants etc, Just like with the Jews in 30s Germany, the ultimate sacrificial offering in history. Of course some ostensible theory is produced to give the sacrifice a sense of rationality, but it's really no different from the sacrificial cults of antiquity.