America, by Jean Baudrillard

Figure 1. City In The Desert1

1. Inkscape (Painter). (September 30, 2008). City In The Desert [Painting]. Desert City (Inkscape Drawing). Retrieved from: http://enderra.com/2008/09/30/desert-city-inkscape-drawing/desert-landscape2/. Page 1 of 6

America is the "absolute simulacrum", the ultimate "hyperreality of everything". Baudrillard comes to prove Astral America (Baudrillard, 1989, pp. 2774) in "cities which are not cities", but deserts. America is the fascinating nonsense; where there is the "stunning fusion of a radical lack of culture and natural beauty, of the wonder of nature and the absolute simulacrum", "mixture of extreme irreferentiality and deconnection overall"; where "culture itself is a desert [... and] has to be a desert so that everything can be equal and shine out in the same supernatural form". Where the sites of natural beauty are not "heavy with meaning, with nostalgia"; In Baudrillard's America, there are millions of anonymous faces, but it is an empty desert (Baudrillard, 1989, pp. 121-128). For Baudrillard, we live in the hyperreal world; where we think that we see reality, but in fact, it is where everything is shaped through images which do not exist in reality. In our world, the multitude of media shapes and modifies everything. He is particularly insisting that we live not in the real world, but its copy, and this copy is shaped through images, signs and symbols; where we just have simulated stimuli (Baudrillard, 2006, pp. 70-74). In Astral America, he speaks about Disney Land as a type of hyperreality, where everything is made in real size to appear real and this system makes it attractive for people who feel that there, they can have more reality with technology and therefore, they go to visit there, buy their products and so on. But, in fact, Disney Land is an imaginary world
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which is not real, and therefore it is hyperreal (Baudrillard, 1989, p. 49 & 56). And that's the way Baudrillard looks at all the world, not just Disney Land. He argues that today simulation is everywhere; we have the proliferation of "models of a real" without origin and it is our world; a hyperreality, a pure simulacrum (Baudrillard, 2006, pp. 70-74). In America, Baudrillard's language is poetic and full of metaphors, but he clearly shows the underlying notions of his studies that signs and images show what America is; A simulacrum, a hyperreality; the ultimate nonsense meaning, the ultimate ridiculous civilization. He knew he would see such America, but came to confirm his previous established images of astral America; to confirm that "there is no seduction, but there is an absolute fascination -- the fascination of the very disappearance of all aesthetic and critical forms of life in the irradiation of an objectless neutrality", that "there is no hope" (Baudrillard, 1989, pp. 121-128). Baudrillard is pessimistic. In this desert forever, Everything is

"reappropriated by speech, by play, by distance, by artifice"; it is a fantastic space which lacks everything that "forms European mental and social habitus"; but unfortunately, this captivating disaster of fascinating nonsense is proliferating in all directions to devour the whole of European civilization and there is no way to get out of it. The whole Europe is eroded by the new form of American civilization

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which is superficial, but paradoxically hyperreal, but unfortunately, there is not even any call of revolution (Baudrillard, 1989, pp. 121-128). Baudrillard introduces America by some of the metaphoric signs and clichd symbols of America and Americans which include speeding automobiles, billboards, gambling, freeways, monuments, buildings, architecture, cities; Los Angeles, Las Vegas; and proves that the images, signs and symbols of US is saturated with ultimacy of everything, but for Baudrillard, it is not so in reality and this preordained result is the only truth. However, his truth is not the whole truth. Baudrillard tries to prove his predetermined beliefs which is a hyperreal America and that's why he ignores the social inconsistency of a country which is made up of people from different nationalities, religions, races, classes and ranks. He wants to impress his readers by insightful phrases (Vidich, 1991, pp. 138-140). But, the truth is that it is not true to judge a country based on just some of the signs which did not seem real for one person and just in one visit. There are a lot of signs about Paris too. Do all of them seem true when one visits Paris for the first time? Sometimes, true meaning is behind all the signs. Perhaps if Baudrillard did not determine to prove his hyperreality, he would have seen intelectuality, liberty, talent, industry, art, and opportunity, of course not in their most-complete-form,

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but in their to-some-extent-form. His language is admirable, but it hides many realities about America and based on those assumptions, too pessimistically, he concludes about the state and fate of culture and civilization of European countries (Vidich, 1991, pp. 138-140) which are dissolving in the cancerous hyperreal civilization of America, as if there is no other country in the world.

Figure 2. My America2

2. Sungho Choi (Photographer). (January 26, 2013). My America [photograph]. Infinite Mirror: Images of American Identity. Retrieved from: http://www6.miami.edu/lowe/exhibition_infinitemirror.html. Page 5 of 6

References:
Baudrillard, J. (1989). America. (C. Turner, Trans.). New York: Verso. Baudrillard, J. (2006). The precession of simulacra. In S. Manghani, A. Piper & J. Simons (Eds.), Images: A Reader (pp. 70-74). London: SAGE Publications Ltd. Vidich, A. J. (1991). Baudrillard's America: Lost in the Ultimate Simulacrum. Theory Culture Society 8, pp. 135-144.

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