Baudrillard
I happen to agree with Virilio that "there is a nihilistic dimension in Baudrillard's writings." The fact that Baudrillard gives up on the social brings up Virilio's point that "reality is produced by a society's culture, it is not given." Interstinly enough, it reminded me of the movie The Matrix. (without delving into the questions of the 2 sequels, whose strange mysteries could be debated ad nauseum)
In the The Matrix, Neo is to be admired for choosing "the real world", a planet where the sun has been blackened out, where there is nothing living, in essence a very unpleasant place. In the "the matrix" or the "fake" word, one encounters a seemingly typical human metropolis, one that resembles the society of our own. What the Matrix and Baudrillard seem to suggest is that somehow, the "fake" world is inferior to the "real." However, if one is to assume that the fake world created by the machines is operating as closely to man's "social" from before, why would anyone want to return to the cesspool of the "real" world?
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