Baudrillard:Simulation:Matrix

First and foremost, I would like to thank Ken Rufo for contributing to our class blog and giving us an in-depth analysis of Baudrillard's work. Baudrillard is obviously a difficult thinker, which is the cause for the many interpretations of his work. He introduces to us the term simulation and the concept of representing a reality. I found it interesting how Rufo spoke about and related this topic back to Marxism and how capitalism in a way created a form of simulation for people by how it creates this false reality based on different ideologies and classifying or molding certain individuals into a certain part of society, leading them to believe that the class or "reality" way of living that society has set up for them is the real reality and the only possible reality they can have. He states how "wealth and materialistic objects" make lower class people "simulate" living like people in upper class.

Applying this to the Matrix, Neo has been living in a false reality all his life and Morpheus is the one who shows him the way; reality. The real world appears to be Zion which is where they are trying to go once they are able to escape from the false reality of the Matrix, which is a computer generated dream world. Now, I have seen this movie about fifty times and I am still unsure which world Neo was existing in before, but I know it wasn't the real. One time in the movie, once Neo goes through the process of being "re-born", he asks Morpheus "why do my eyes hurt?" and he replies "because you've never used them before". This is just emphasis on the fact that he has been blinded all this time and sheltered from reality and he is finally seeing the truth.

This is a perfect example of how our world works as well; just not as extreme and without all the costumes. The media is a perfect example or form of simulation.  It speeds up, copies, and makes "artificial things appear real." A lot of television is an advertisement trying to sell you something or persuade you to think in a certain way. It usually portray people to be jolly and always smiling. Food advertisements always have their food laid out perfect, with no spills and everyone is satisfied. It also tends to have a particular portrayal of different social and/or ethnic classes in a certain way as well. Most of us aren't able to have first-hand access to everything in the world, so the media is our only portal to see what goes on. So the way that the media portrays everything, leads us to believe that that is the reality of things. Now if w can differentiate between what is real and what is only an imitation, that's great, but then we are left with deciding how and who is liable to decide what can be defined as real, as our own reality.