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""First prize for cerebral cold-bloodedness goes to French philosopher Jean Baudrillard." -- New York Times "... philosophical perfection. Each book [in the Verso series of 9-11] offers powerful and highly readable commentary that whirlwinds around the specter of the towers, and together the texts raise an indelibly valuable dialogue where many are still afraid to step. Unbreakable, these volumes are filled with extraordinary ideas and ideals that slowly piece together from one poetic line to the next." -- XLR8R Magazine
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Baudrillard sees the power of the terrorists as lying in the symbolism of this slaughter. Not merely the reality of death, but a sacrificial death that challenges the whole system. Where the past revolutionary sought to conduct a struggle of real forces in the context of ideology and politics, the new terrorist mounts a powerful symbolic challenge, which, when combined with high-tech resources, constitutes an unprecedented assault on an over-sophisticated, vulnerable West. This new edition is updated with the recent essays 'Hypothesis on Terrorism' and 'Violence of the Global'.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The four essays in this slim book constitute Baudrillard's take on 9/11. He sees the events of that day as an example of terror vs terror with no ideological underpinning. The prevailing US-dominated world order 'by seizing all the cards for itself, forced the Other to change the rules.' He observes that the impulse to reject the system grows the more the system nears omnipotence. He also maintains that we all have dreamt of something like this happening - it is impossible to avoid doing so when a power becomes so hegemonic - and this reflects our western moral conscience at work. 'They did it, but we wished for it.'
Baudrillard sees globalisation as viral and that its cells revolt in the form of antibodies. This is what constitutes World War 4 (following WW1, WW2 and the Cold War) rather than the much vaunted 'clash of civilisations' (the US vs Islam). Terrorism is the radical antagonism at the heart of globalisation. It is not part of a tradition but a contemporary response to globalisation and its worldwide imposition of the values of the market and their accompanying culture. Globalisation involves homogenisation and fragmentation - the central gives way not to the local but to a dislocation and we are left with just an all-powerful global technostructure.
The spirit of terrorism is sacrificial death. The motive of the terrorists is to challenge the system by the symbolic gift of death; terrorism itself has no ultimate meaning or objective beyond this. As such it is a pathetic last stirring of a dying reality which has no effect on the global system at all. Except for one thing: the stunning impact of the events, leading to loss of image and credibility, the sight of the toppling twin towers. Only singularities such as this can thwart the system; only a humiliation in return for humiliation.
I found this work readable, interesting and not as difficult to grasp as, say, Baudrillard's book on the Gulf War of 1991. He struts his stuff as a philosopher, treating us to typically startling observations, and this assists us in thinking about an unforgettable event in ways that are somewhat different from those of the mass of studies that have been published since it happened.
Baudrillard sees globalisation as viral and that its cells revolt in the form of antibodies. This is what constitutes World War 4 (following WW1, WW2 and the Cold War) rather than the much vaunted 'clash of civilisations' (the US vs Islam). Terrorism is the radical antagonism at the heart of globalisation. It is not part of a tradition but a contemporary response to globalisation and its worldwide imposition of the values of the market and their accompanying culture. Globalisation involves homogenisation and fragmentation - the central gives way not to the local but to a dislocation and we are left with just an all-powerful global technostructure.
The spirit of terrorism is sacrificial death. The motive of the terrorists is to challenge the system by the symbolic gift of death; terrorism itself has no ultimate meaning or objective beyond this. As such it is a pathetic last stirring of a dying reality which has no effect on the global system at all. Except for one thing: the stunning impact of the events, leading to loss of image and credibility, the sight of the toppling twin towers. Only singularities such as this can thwart the system; only a humiliation in return for humiliation.
I found this work readable, interesting and not as difficult to grasp as, say, Baudrillard's book on the Gulf War of 1991. He struts his stuff as a philosopher, treating us to typically startling observations, and this assists us in thinking about an unforgettable event in ways that are somewhat different from those of the mass of studies that have been published since it happened.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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5 reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
"There's an end to all your talk about the virtual-this is something real!" (p.28)
26 Jan 2008
Format:Paperback
The violence of the real, or the reality of violence is the only thing power understands. Confronted with suicides, the system (indeed any system) begins to mimic suicide, ultimately committing itself to its own suicide.
I won't pretend to understand all of this great writer's words. Partly because my understanding of French is limited. Partly because I have only read a translation. And lastly because I have been fed oh so many Americanisms.
This is a good intro into exploring possible interpretations and misunderstandings embedded in our conceptions of the "World". Reading it has helped me to begin to demystify the political concept of Terrorism, especially its connotations within the virtual world of media discourse.
"To the point that the idea of freedom, a new and recent idea, is already fading from minds and mores, and liberal globalization is coming about in precisely the opposite form-a police state globalization, a total control, a terror based on 'law and order' measures. Deregulation ends up in a maximum of constraints and restrictions, akin to those of a fundamentalist society." (p.32 from the unrevised edition)
I would also recommend "The Transparency of Evil: Essays on Extreme Phenomenon" (1993) by Jean Baudrillard.
I won't pretend to understand all of this great writer's words. Partly because my understanding of French is limited. Partly because I have only read a translation. And lastly because I have been fed oh so many Americanisms.
This is a good intro into exploring possible interpretations and misunderstandings embedded in our conceptions of the "World". Reading it has helped me to begin to demystify the political concept of Terrorism, especially its connotations within the virtual world of media discourse.
"To the point that the idea of freedom, a new and recent idea, is already fading from minds and mores, and liberal globalization is coming about in precisely the opposite form-a police state globalization, a total control, a terror based on 'law and order' measures. Deregulation ends up in a maximum of constraints and restrictions, akin to those of a fundamentalist society." (p.32 from the unrevised edition)
I would also recommend "The Transparency of Evil: Essays on Extreme Phenomenon" (1993) by Jean Baudrillard.
30 of 45 people found the following review helpful
America
24 Mar 2004
Format:Paperback
Well, this is a very short book. If you arte not familiar with Baudrillard's academic social theory and philosophical works, much of the commentary may come across as superficial, cynical or just plain odd. The unreferenced paraphrasal of Clauschwitz's formula (earlier inverted by Foucault), the references to 'symbols' and death as 'sacrifice'; none of this will make any sense unless you have read Symbolic Exchange and Death, or Signs and Simulations, and like those english journos who reviewed 'The Gulf War did not take place' with similar ignorance, if you take it only at that level you will miss the whole point, and look like a stupid arse.
Sacrifice referes to his thesis in symbolic exchange and death that the only resistance to the 'system' is suicide, building on the third volume of Marx's Capital; so that dead labour now outweighs living labour, we all live in a world of death, the only refusal is to stop the system killin us.
As the editor of the edition of 'The Gulf war did not take place' that I read showed; many people criticsed Baudrillard comparing him to a classical 'enlightenment' thinker like Noam Chomsky. But this edition then had a quote by Chomsky in the intro where he said it wasn't a 'war' because that conventionally meant two sides fighting against each other. Similarly, Baudrillard's point that we have all imagined the collapse of american empire; in a couple of different places in his work on US foreign policy Chomsky talks about the war mongers in Vietnam and what they said about the 'VC', hypothesising what they would have done if the VC had launched attacks in downtown New York.
Besides which, why should Baudrillard have to explain himself to you in any case? If we can't see through the oxymoronism of a 'War on Terrorism' we deserve to blown up in densly populated city centres like the sheep we are.
Refreshing analysis of 9/11
21 Jan 2011
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Baudrillard speaks both as a Westerner, yet outside of the discourse most Americans would be familiar with (Good vs Evil, Us vs Them, Democracy vs Funamentalism, Christians vs Muslims, "they hate us because we are free", etc). For those who only know these views, his ideas may come as a shock; for those who with to think freely (outside what others say we must think), his ideas are a breath of fresh air. The style of the book is accessible for those unfamiliar with Baudrillardian ideas/concepts, and in fact could be a way in to understanding what he means when he speaks of "simulation". A great read!
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