50106749 simulacration

8/13/2019 50106749 Simulacration

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Jean Baudrillard

Jean Baudrillard

SimulationsTranslated by Paul Foss, Paul Patton and Philip Beitchman

Foreign Agents Series

Semiotext(e), Inc

!"" Philosophy #all$olumbia %ni&ersity

'e or* $ity, 'e or* +"- %SA

.+/01 Semiotext(e) and Jean Baudrillard

All rights reser&ed

Printed in the %nited States o2 America

Contents

The Precession o2 Simulacra +

The 3rders o2 Simulacra "/

The Precession of Simulacra

The simulacrum is ne&er that hich conceals the truth 4 it is the truth hich conceals that

there is none

The simulacrum is true

- Ecclesiastes

I2 e ere able to ta*e as the 2inest allegory o2 simulation the Borges tale here thecartographers o2 the 5mpire dra up a map so detailed that it ends up exactly co&ering

the territory (but here the decline o2 the 5mpire sees this map become 2rayed and 2inally

ruined, a 2e shreds still discernible in the deserts 4 the metaphysical beauty o2 thisruined abstraction, bearing itness to an Imperial pride and rotting li*e a carcass,

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returning to the substance o2 the soil, rather as an aging double ends up being con2used

ith the real thing) 4 then this 2able has come 2ull circle 2or us, and no has nothing but

the discrete charm o2 second4order simulacra +

Abstraction today is no longer that o2 the map, the double, the mirror or the concept

Simulation is no longer that o2 a territory, a re2erential being or a substance It is thegeneration by models o2 a real ithout origin or reality6 a hyperreal The territory no

longer precedes the map, nor sur&i&es it #ence2orth, it is the map that precedes theterritory 4 PRECESSION OF SIMULCR 4 it is the map that engenders the territory

and i2 e ere to re&i&e the 2able today, it ould be the territory hose shreds are sloly

rotting across the map It is the real, and not the map, hose &estiges subsist here andthere, in the deserts hich are no longer those o2 the 5mpire, but our on

The desert of the real itself.

In 2act, e&en in&erted, the 2able is useless Perhaps only the allegory o2 the 5mpire

remains For it is ith the same Imperialism that present4day simulators try to ma*e thereal, all the real, coincide ith their simulation models But it is no longer a 7uestion o2

either maps or territory Something has disappeared6 the so&ereign di22erence beteen

them that as the abstractions charm For it is the di22erence hich 2orms the poetry o2

the map and the charm o2 the territory, the magic o2 the concept and the charm o2 the realThis representational imaginary, hich both culminates in and is engul2ed by the

cartographer8s mad pro9ect o2 an ideal coextensi&ity beteen the map and the territory,

disappears ith simulation hose operation is nuclear and genetic, and no longerspecular and discursi&e :ith it goes all o2 metaphysics 'o more mirror o2 being and

appearances, o2 the real and its concept 'o more imaginary coextensi&ity6 rather, genetic

miniaturisation is the dimension o2 simulation The real is produced 2rom miniaturised

units, 2rom matrices, memory ban*s and command models 4 and ith these it can bereproduced an inde2inite number o2 times It no longer has to be rational, since it is no

longer measured against some ideal or negati&e instance It is nothing more thanoperational In 2act, since it is no longer en&eloped by an imaginary, it is no longer real at

all It is a hyperreal, the product o2 an irradiating synthesis o2 combinatory models in a

hyperspace ithout atmosphere

In this passage to a space hose cur&ature is no longer that o2 the real, nor o2 truth, theage o2 simulation thus begins ith a li7uidation o2 all re2erentials4orse6 by their

arti2icial resurrection in systems o2 signs, a more ductile material than meaning, in that it

lends itsel2 to all systems o2 e7ui&alence, all binary oppositions and all combinatory

algebra It is no longer a 7uestion o2 imitation, nor o2 reduplication, nor e&en o2 parody Itis rather a 7uestion o2 substituting signs o2 the real 2or the real itsel2, that is, an operation

to deter e&ery real process by its operational double, a metastable, programmatic, per2ect

descripti&e machine hich pro&ides all the signs o2 the real and short4circuits all its&icissitudes 'e&er again ill the real ha&e to be produced 4 this is the &ital 2unction o2

the model in a system o2 death, or rather o2 anticipated resurrection hich no longer

lea&es any chance e&en in the e&ent o2 death A hyperreal hence2orth sheltered 2rom theimaginary, and 2rom any distinction beteen the real and the imaginary, lea&ing room

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only 2or the orbital recurrence o2 models and the simulated generation o2 di22erence

The Divine Irreference of Images

To dissimulate is to 2eign not to ha&e hat one has To simulate is to 2eign to ha&e hat

one hasn8t 3ne implies a presence, the other an absence But the matter is morecomplicated, since to simulate is not simply to 2eign6 ;Someone ho 2eigns an illness can

simply go to bed and ma*e belie&e he is ill Some ho simulates an illness produces inhimsel2 some o2 the symptoms; (<ittre) Thus, 2eigning or dissimulating lea&es the reality

principle intact6 the di22erence is alays clear, it is only mas*ed= hereas simulation

threatens the di22erence beteen ;true; and ;2alse;, beteen ;real; and ;imaginary;Since the simulator produces ;true; symptoms, is he ill or not> #e cannot be treated

ob9ecti&ely either as ill, or as not4ill Psychology and medicine stop at this point, be2ore a

therea2ter undisco&erable truth o2 the illness For i2 any symptom can be ;produced;, andcan no longer be accepted as a 2act o2 nature, then e&ery illness may be considered as

simulatable and simulated, and medicine loses its meaning since it only *nos ho to

treat ;true; illnesses by their ob9ecti&e causes Psychosomatics e&ol&es in a dubious ayon the edge o2 the illness principle As 2or psychoanalysis, it trans2ers the symptom 2rom

the organic to the unconscious order6 once again, the latter is held to be true, more true

than the 2ormerbut hy should simulation stop at the portals o2 the unconscious> :hy

couldn8t the ;or*; o2 the unconscious be ;produced; in the same ay as any othersymptom in classical medicine> ?reams already are

The alienist, o2 course, claims that ;2or each 2orm o2 the mental alienation there is a

particular order in the succession o2 symptoms, o2 hich the simulator is unaare and in

the absence o2 hich the alienist is unli*ely to be decei&ed; This (hich dates 2rom+0@!) in order to sa&e at all cost the truth principle, and to escape the spectre raised by

simulation 4 namely that truth, re2erence and ob9ecti&e causes ha&e ceased to exist :hatcan medicine do ith something hich 2loats on either side o2 illness, on either side o2health, or ith the reduplication o2 illness in a discourse that is no longer true or 2alse>

:hat can psychoanalysis do ith the reduplication o2 the discourse o2 the unconscious in

a discourse o2 simulation that can ne&er be unmas*ed, since it isn8t 2alse either> "

:hat can the army do ith simulators> Traditionally, 2olloing a direct principle o2identi2ication, it unmas*s and punishes them Today, it can re2orm an excellent simulator

as though he ere e7ui&alent to a ;real; homosexual, heart4case or lunatic 5&en military

psychology retreats 2rom the $artesian clarities and hesitates to dra the distinction beteen true and 2alse, beteen the ;produced; symptom and the authentic symptom ;I2

he acts cray so ell, then he must be mad; 'or is it mista*en6 in the sense that all

lunatics are simulators, and this lac* o2 distinction is the orst 2orm o2 sub&ersionAgainst it classical reason armed itsel2 ith all its categories But it is this today hich

again out2lan*s them, submerging the truth principle

3utside o2 medicine and the army, 2a&ored terrains o2 simulation, the a22air goes bac* to

religion and the simulacrum o2 di&inity6 ;I 2orbad any simulacrum in the temples becausethe di&inity that breathes li2e into nature cannot be represented;

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Indeed it can But hat becomes o2 the di&inity hen it re&eals itsel2 in icons, hen it is

multiplied in simulacra> ?oes it remain the supreme authority, simply incarnated in

images as a &isible theology> 3r is it &olatilied into simulacra hich alone deploy their pomp and poer o2 2ascination 4 the &isible machinery o2 icons being substituted 2or the

pure and intelligible Idea o2 od> This is precisely hat as 2eared by the Iconoclasts,

hose millenial 7uarrel is still ith us today1

Their rage to destroy images rose precisely because they sensed this omnipotence o2 simulacra, this 2acility they ha&e o2

e22acing od 2rom the consciousness o2 men, and the o&erhelming, destructi&e truth

hich they suggest6 that ultimately there has ne&er been any od, that only thesimulacrum exists, indeed that od himsel2 has only e&er been his on simulacrum #ad

they been able to belie&e that images only occulted or mas*ed the Platonic Idea o2 od,

there ould ha&e been no reason to destroy them 3ne can li&e ith the idea o2 a

distorted truth But their metaphysical despair came 2rom the idea that the imagesconcealed nothing at all, and that in 2act they ere not images, such as the original model

ould ha&e made them, but actually per2ect simulacra 2ore&er radiant ith their on

2ascination But this death o2 the di&ine re2erential has to be exorcised at all cost

It can be seen that the iconoclasts, ho are o2ten accused o2 despising and denying

images, ere in 2act the ones ho accorded them their actual orth, unli*e the

iconolaters, ho sa in them only re2lections and ere content to &enerate od at one

remo&e But the con&erse can also be said, namely that the iconolaters ere the mostmodern and ad&enturous minds, since underneath the idea o2 the apparition o2 od in the

mirror o2 images, they already enacted his death and his disappearance in the epiphany o2

his representations (hich they perhaps *ne no longer represented anything, and thatthey ere purely a game, but that this as precisely the greatest game 4 *noing also that

it is dangerous to unmas* images, since they dissimulate the 2act that there is nothing

behind them)

This as the approach o2 the Jesuits, ho based their politics on the &irtual disappearanceo2 od and on the orldly and spectacular manipulation o2 consciencesthe e&anescence

o2 od in the epiphany o2 poer 4 the end o2 transcendence, hich no longer ser&es as

alibi 2or a strategy completely 2ree o2 in2luences and signs Behind the baro7ue o2 imageshides the grey eminence o2 politics

Thus perhaps at sta*e has alays been the murderous capacity o2 images, muderers o2 the

real, murderers o2 their on model as the Byantine icons could murder the di&ine

identity To this murderous capacity is opposed the dialectical capacity o2 representationsas a &isible and intelligible mediation o2 the Ceal All o2 :estern 2aith and good 2aith as

engaged in this ager on representation6 that a sign could re2er to the depth o2 meaning,

that a sign could exchange 2or meaning and that something could guarantee this exchange4 od, o2 course But hat i2 od himsel2 can be simulated, that is to say, reduced to the

signs hich attest his existence> Then the hole system becomes eightless, it is no

longer anything but a gigantic simulacrum 4 not unreal, but a simulacrum, ne&er again

exchanging 2or hat is real, but exchanging in itsel2, in an uninterrupted circuit ithoutre2erence or circum2erence

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So it is ith simulation, inso2ar as it is opposed to representation The latter starts 2rom

the principle that the sign and the real are e7ui&alent (e&en i2 this e7ui&alence is utopian,

it is a 2undamental axiom) $on&ersely, simulation starts 2rom the utopia o2 this principleo2 e7ui&alence, from the radical negation of the sign as value, 2rom the sign as re&ersion

and death sentence o2 e&ery re2erence :hereas representation tries to absorb simulation

by interpreting it as 2alse representation, simulation en&elops the hole edi2ice o2representation as itsel2 a simulacrum

This ould be the successi&e phases o2 the image6

4 it is the re2lection o2 a basic reality

4 it mas*s and per&erts a basic reality

4 it mas*s the absence o2 a basic reality

4 it bears no relation to any reality hate&er6 it is its on pure simulacrum

In the 2irst case, the image is a good appearance 4 the representation is o2 the order o2sacrament In the second, it is an evil appearance 4 o2 the order o2 male2ice In the third, it

plays at being an appearance 4 it is o2 the order o2 sorcery In the 2ourth, it is no longer in

the order o2 appearance at all, but o2 simulation

The transition 2rom signs hich dissimulate something to signs hich dissimulate thatthere is nothing, mar*s the decisi&e turning point The 2irst implies a theology o2 truth

and secrecy (to hich the notion o2 ideology still belongs) The second inaugurates an

age o2 simulacra and stimulation, in hich there is no longer any od to recognise his

on, nor any last 9udgement to separate true 2rom 2alse, the real 2rom its arti2icialresurrection, since e&erything is already dead and risen in ad&ance

:hen the real is no longer hat it used to be, nostalgia assumes its 2ull meaning There is

a proli2eration o2 myths o2 origin and signs o2 reality=, o2 second4hand truth, ob9ecti&ityand authenticity There is an escalation o2 the true, o2 the li&ed experience= a resurrection

o2 the 2igurati&e here the ob9ect and substance ha&e disappeared And there is a panic4

stric*en production o2 the real and the re2erential, abo&e and parallel to the panic o2material production6 this is ho simulation appears in the phase that concerns us 4 a

strategy o2 the real, neo4real and hypperral hose uni&ersal double is a strategy o2

deterrence

Rameses, or Rose-Coloured Resurrection

5thnology almost met a paradoxical death that day in +/-+ hen the Phillipino

go&ernment decided to return the 2e doen Tasaday disco&ered deep in the 9ungle,

here they had li&ed 2or eight centuries undisturbed by the rest o2 man*ind, to their

primiti&e state, out o2 reach o2 colonists, tourists and ethnologists This as at the

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initiati&e o2 the anthropologists themsel&es, ho sa the nati&es decompose immediately

on contact, li*e a mummy in the open air

For ethnology to li&e, its ob9ect must die But the latter re&enges itsel2 by dying 2orha&ing been ;disco&ered;, and de2ies by its death the science that ants to ta*e hold o2 it

?oesn8t e&ery science li&e on this paradoxical slope to hich it is doomed by the

e&anescence o2 its ob9ect in the &ery process o2 its apprehension, and by the pitiless

re&ersal this dead ob9ect exerts on it> <i*e 3rpheus it alays turns around too soon, andits ob9ect, li*e 5urydice, 2alls bac* into #ades

It as against this hades o2 paradox that the ethnologists anted to protect themsel&es by

cordoning o22 the Tasaday ith &irgin 2orest 'obody no ill touch it6 the &ein is closed

don, li*e a mine Science loses a precious capital, but the ob9ect ill be sa2e 4 lost toscience, but intact in its ;&irginity; It isn8t a 7uestion o2 sacri2ice (science ne&er sacri2ices

itsel26 it is alays murderous), but o2 the simulated sacri2ice o2 its ob9ect in order to sa&e

its reality principle The Tasaday, 2roen in their natural element, pro&ide a per2ect alibi,an eternal guarantee At this point begins a persistent anti4ethnology to hich Jaulin,

$astaneda and $lastres &ariously belong In any case, the logical e&olution o2 a science is

to distance itsel2 e&er 2urther 2rom its ob9ect until it dispenses ith it entirely6 its

autonomy e&ermore 2antastical in reaching its pure 2orm

The Indian thereby dri&en bac* into the ghetto, into the glass co22in o2 &irgin 2orest,

becomes the simulation model 2or all concei&able Indians before ethnology The latter

thus allos itsel2 the luxury o2 being incarnate beyond itsel2, in the ;brute; reality o2these Indians it has entirely rein&ented 4 Sa&ages ho are indebted to ethnology 2or still

being Sa&ages6 hat a turn o2 e&ents, hat a triumph 2or this science hich seemed

dedicated to their destructionE

32 course, these particular Sa&ages are posthumous6 2roen, cryogenised, sterilised, protected to death, they ha&e become re2erential simulacra, and the science itsel2 a pure

simulation Same thing at $reusot here, in the 2orm o2 an ;open; museum exhibition,

they ha&e ;museumised; on the spot, as historical itnesses to their period, entire

or*ing class 7uartiers, li&ing metallurgical ones, a complete culture including men,omen and children and their gestures, languages and habits 4 li&ing beings 2ossilised as

in a snap shot The museum, instead o2 being curcumscribed in a geometrical location, is

no e&eryhere, li*e a dimension o2 li2e itsel2 Thus ethnology, no 2reed 2rom itsob9ect, ill no longer be circumscribed as an ob9ecti&e science but is applied to all li&ing

things and becomes in&isible, li*e an omnipresent 2ourth dimension, that o2 the

simulacrum e are all Tasaday, or Indians ho ha&e once more become ;hat theyused to be;, or at least that hich ethnology has made them 4 simulacra Indians ho

proclaim at last the uni&ersal truth o2 ethnology

:e all become li&ing specimens under the spectral light o2 ethnology, or o2 anti4

ethnology hich is only the pure 2orm o2 triumphal ethnology, under the sign o2 deaddi22erences, and o2 the resurrection o2 di22erences It is thus extremely nai&e to loo* 2or

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ethnology among the Sa&ages or in some Third :orld4it is here, e&eryhere, in the

metropolis, among the hites, in a orld completely catalogued and analysed and then

artificially revived as though real , in a orld o2 simulation6 o2 the hallucination o2 truth,o2 blac*mail by the real, o2 the murder and historical (hysterical) retrospection o2 e&ery

symbolic 2orm 4 a murder hose 2irst &ictims ere, noblesse oblige, the Sa&ages, but

hich 2or a long time no has been extended to all :estern societies

But at the same moment ethnology gi&es up its 2inal and only lesson, the secret hich*ills it (and hich the sa&ages understood much better)6 the &engeance o2 the dead

The con2inement o2 the scienti2ic ob9ect is the same as that o2 the insane and the dead

And 9ust as the hole o2 society is hopelessly contaminated by that mirror o2 madness ithas held out 2or itsel2, so science can only die contaminated by the death o2 the ob9ect

hich is its in&erse mirror It is science hich ostensibly masters the ob9ect, but it is the

latter hich deeply in&ests the 2ormer, 2olloing an unconscious re&ersion, gi&ing only

dead and circular replies to a dead and circular interrogation

'othing changes hen society brea*s the mirror o2 madness (abolishes asylums, gi&es

speech bac* to the mad, etc) nor hen science seems to brea* the mirror o2 its

ob9ecti&ity (e22acing itsel2 be2ore its ob9ect, as $astaneda does, etc) and to bo don

be2ore ;di22erences; $on2inement is succeeded by an apparatus hich assumes acountless and endlessly di22ractable, multipliable 2orm As 2ast as ethnology in its

classical institution collapses, it sur&i&es in an anti4ethnology hose tas* is to rein9ect

2ictional di22erence and Sa&agery e&eryhere, in order to conceal the 2act that it is thisorld, our on, hich in its ay has become sa&age again, that is to say de&astated by

di22erence and death

It is in this ay, under the pretext o2 sa&ing the original, that the ca&es o2 <ascaux ha&e been 2orbidden to &isitors and an exact replica constructed ! metres aay, so thate&eryone can see them (you glance through a peephole at the real grotto and then &isit the

reconstituted hole) It is possible that the &ery memory o2 the original ca&es ill 2ade in

the mind o2 2uture generations, but 2rom no on there is no longer any di22erence6 theduplication is su22icient to render both arti2icial

In the same ay the hole o2 science and technology ere recently mobilised to sa&e themummy o2 Cameses II, a2ter it had been le2t to deteriorate in the basement o2 a museum

The :est as panic4stric*en at the thought o2 not being able to sa&e hat the symbolic

order had been able to preser&e 2or D centuries, but aay 2rom the light and gae o2onloo*ers Cameses means nothing to us6 only the mummy is o2 inestimable orth since

it is hat guarantees that accumulation means something 3ur entire linear and

accumulati&e culture ould collapse i2 e could not stoc*pile the past in plain &ie Tothis end the pharaohs must be brought out o2 their tombs, and the mummies out o2 their

silence To this end they must be exhumed and gi&en military honors They are prey to

both science and the orms 3nly absolute secrecy ensured their potency throughout the

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millenia 4 their mastery o&er putre2action, hich signi2ied a mastery o&er the total cycle

o2 exchange ith death e *no better than to use our science 2or the reparation o2 the

mummy, that is, to restore a visible order, hereas embalming as a mythical laboraimed at immortalising a hidden dimension

:e need a &isible past, a &isible continuum, a &isible myth o2 origin to reassure us as toour ends, since ultimately e ha&e ne&er belie&ed in them :hence that historic scene o2

the mummy8s reception at 3rly airport All because Cameses as a great despot andmilitary 2igure> $ertainly6 but abo&e all because the order hich our culture dreams o2,

behind that de2unct poer it see*s to annex, could ha&e had nothing to do ith it, and it

dreams thus because it has exterminated this order by exhuming it as if it !ere our o!n past

:e are 2ascinated by Cameses as Cenaissance $hristians ere by the American Indians6

those (human>) beings ho had ne&er *non the ord o2 $hrist Thus, at the beginning

o2 colonisation, there as a moment o2 stupor and amaement be2ore the &ery possibility

o2 escaping the uni&ersal la o2 the ospel There ere to possible responses6 either toadmit that this la as not uni&ersal, or to exterminate the Indians so as to remo&e the

e&idence In general, it as enough to con&ert them, or e&en simply to disco&er them, toensure their slo extermination

Thus it ould ha&e been enough to exhume Cameses to ensure his extermination bymuseumi2ication For mummies do not decay because o2 orms6 they die 2rom being

transplanted 2rom, a prolonged symbolic order, hich is master o&er death and

putrescence, on to an order o2 history, science and museums 4 our on, hich is no

longer master o&er anything, since it only *nos ho to condemn its predecessors todeath and putrescence and their subse7uent resuscitation by science An irreparable

&iolence toards all secrets, the &iolence o2 a ci&ilisation ithout secrets The hatred byan entire ci&ilisation 2or its on 2oundations

And 9ust as ith ethnology playing at surrendering its ob9ect the better to establish itsel2

in its pure 2orm, so museumi2ication is only one more turn in the spiral o2 arti2iciality

:itness the cloister o2 St4ichel de $uxa, hich is going to be repatriated at greatexpense 2rom the $loisters in 'e or* to be reinstalled on ;its original site; And

e&eryone is supposed to applaud this restitution (as ith the ;experimental campaign to

in bac* the sideal*s; on the $hamps45lyseesE) #oe&er, i2 the exportation o2 the

cornices as in e22ect an arbitrary act, and i2 the $loisters o2 'e or* are really anarti2icial mosaic o2 all cultures (according to a logic o2 the capitalist centralisation o2

&alue), then reimportation to the original location is e&en more arti2icial6 it is a total

simulacrum that lin*s up ith ;reality; by a complete circum&olution

The cloister should ha&e stayed in 'e or* in its simulated en&ironment, hich at least

ould ha&e 2ooled no one Cepatriation is only a supplementary subter2uge, in order to

ma*e out as though nothing had happened and to indulge in a retrospecti&e hallucination

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simulation It is no longer a 7uestion o2 a 2alse representation o2 reality (ideology), but o2

concealing the 2act that the real is no longer real, and thus o2 sa&ing the reality principle

The ?isneyland imaginary is neither true nor 2alse= it is a deterrence machine set up inorder to re9u&enate in re&erse the 2iction o2 the real :hence the debility, the in2antile

degeneration o2 this imaginary It is meant to be an in2antile orld, in order to ma*e us belie&e that the adults are elsehere, in the ;real; orld, and to conceal the 2act that real

childishness is e&eryhere, particularly amongst those adults ho go there to act thechild in order to 2oster illusions as to their real childishness

oreo&er, ?isneyland is not the only one 5nchanted Gillage, agic ountain, arine

:orld6 <os Angeles is encircled by these ;imaginary stations; hich 2eed reality, reality4energy, to a ton hose mystery is precisely that it is nothing more than a netor* o2

endless, unreal circulation 4 a ton o2 2abulous proportions, but ithout space or

dimensions As much as electrical and nuclear poer stations, as much as 2ilm studios,

this ton, hich is nothing more than an immense script and a perpetual motion picture,

needs this old imaginary made up o2 childhood signals and 2a*ed phantasms 2or itssympathetic ner&ous system

&olitical Incantation

:atergate Same scenario as ?isneyland (an imaginary e22ect concealing that reality nomore exists outside than inside the bounds o2 the arti2icial perimeter)6 though here it is a

scandal e22ect concealing that there is no di22erence beteen the 2acts and their

denunciation (identical methods are employed by the $IA and the ashington &ost 9ournalists) Same operation, though this time tending toards scandal as a means to

regenerate a moral and political principle, toards the imaginary as a means to regenerate

a reality principle in distress

The denunciation o2 scandal alays pays homage to the la And :atergate abo&e allsucceeded in imposing the idea that :atergate !as a scandal 4 in this sense it as an

extraordinary operation o2 intoxication The rein9ection o2 a large dose o2 political

morality on a global scale It could be said along ith Bourdieu that6 ;The speci2ic

character o2 e&ery relation o2 2orce is to dissimulate itsel2 as such, and to ac7uire all its2orce only because it is so dissimulated;, understood as 2ollos6 capital, hich is

immoral and unscrupulous, can only 2unction behind a moral superstructure, and hoe&er

regenerates this public morality (by indignation, denunciation, etc) spontaneously2urthers the order o2 capital, as did the ashington &ost 9ournalists

But this is still only the 2ormula o2 ideology, and hen Bourdieu enunciates it, he ta*es

;relation o2 2orce; to mean the truth o2 capitalist domination, and he denounces this

relation o2 2orce as itsel2 a scandal 4 he there2ore occupies the same deterministic andmoralistic position as the ashington &ost 9ounalists #e does the same 9ob o2 purging

and re&i&ing moral order, an order o2 truth herein the genuine symbolic &iolence o2 the

social order is engendered, ell beyond all relations o2 2orce, hich are only itsindi22erent and shi2ting con2iguration in the moral and political consciousness o2 men

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All that capital as*s o2 us is to recei&e it as rational or to combat it in the name o2

rationality, to recei&e it as moral or to combat it in the name o2 morality For they are

identical , meaning they can be read another !ay6 be2ore, the tas* as to dissimulatescandal= today, the tas* is to conceal the 2act that there is none

atergate is not a scandal 6 this is hat must be said at all cost, 2or this is hat e&eryoneis concerned to conceal, this dissimulation mas*ing a strengthening o2 morality, a moral

panic as e approach the primal (mise en) scene o2 capital6 its instantaneous cruelty, itsincomprehensible 2erocity, its 2undamental immorality 4 this is hat is scandalous,

unaccountable 2or in that system o2 moral and economic e7ui&alence hich remains the

axiom o2 le2tist thought, 2rom 5nlightenment theory to communism $apital doesn8t gi&ea damn about the idea o2 the contract hich is imputed to it 4 it is a monstrous

unprincipled underta*ing, nothing more Cather, it is ;enlightened; thought hich see*s

to control capital by imposing rules on it And all that recrimination hich replacedre&olutionary thought today comes don to reproaching capital 2or not 2olloing the

rules o2 the game ;Poer is un9ust, its 9ustice is a class 9ustice, capital exploits us, etc; 4

as i2 capital ere lin*ed by a contract to the society it rules It is the le2t hich holds outthe mirror o2 e7ui&alence, hoping that capital ill 2all 2or this phantasmagoria o2 the

social contract and 2ul2ull its obligation toards the hole o2 society (at the same time,

no need 2or re&olution6 it is enough that capital accept the rational 2ormula o2 exchange)

$apital in 2act has ne&er been lin*ed by a contract to the society it dominates It is asorcery o2 the social relation, it is a challenge to society and should be responded to as

such It is not a scandal to be denounced according to moral and economic rationality, but

a challenge to ta*e up according to symbolic la

'oebius-(piralling )egativity

#ence :atergate as only a trap set by the system to catch its ad&ersaries 4 a simulationo2 scandal to regenerati&e ends This is embodied by the character called ;?eep Throat;,

ho as said to be a Cepublican grey eminence manipulating the le2tist 9ournalists in

order to get rid o2 'ixon 4 and hy not> All hypotheses are possible, although this one issuper2luous6 the or* o2 the Cight is done &ery ell, and spontaneously, by the <e2t on

its on Besides, it ould be nai&e to see an embittered good conscience at or* here

For the Cight itsel2 also spontaneously does the or* o2 the <e2t All the hypotheses o2manipulation are re&ersible in an endless hirligig For manipulation is a 2loating

causality here positi&ity and negati&ity engender and o&erlap ith one another, here

there is no longer any acti&e or passi&e It is by putting an arbitrary stop to this re&ol&ing

causality that a principle o2 political reality can be sa&ed It is by the simulation o2 acon&entional, restricted perspecti&e 2ield, here the premises and conse7uences o2 any

act or e&ent are calculable, that a political credibility can be maintained (including, o2

course, ;ob9ecti&e; analysis, struggle, etc) But i2 the entire cycle o2 any act or e&ent isen&isaged in a system here linear continuity and dialectical polarity no longer exist, in a

2ield unhinged by simulation, then all determination e&aporates, e&ery act terminates at

the end o2 the cycle ha&ing bene2ited e&eryone and been scattered in all directions

++



Is any gi&en bombing in Italy the or* o2 le2tist extremists, or o2 extreme right4ing

pro&ocation, or staged by centrists to bring e&ery terrorist extreme into disrepute and to

shore up its on 2ailing poer, or again, is it a police4inspired scenario in order to appealto public security> All this is e7ually true, and the search 2or proo2, indeed the ob9ecti&ity

o2 the 2act does not chec* this &ertigo o2 interpretation :e are in a logic o2 simulation

hich has nothing to do ith a logic o2 2acts and an order o2 reasons Simulation ischaracterised by a precession of the model , o2 all models around the merest 2act 4 the

models come 2irst, and their orbital (li*e the bomb) circulation constitutes the genuine

magnetic 2ield o2 e&ents Facts no longer ha&e any tra9ectory o2 their on, they arise atthe intersection o2 the models= a single 2act may e&en be engendered by all the models at

once This anticipation, this precession, this short4circuit, this con2usion o2 the 2act ith

its model (no more di&ergence o2 meaning, no more dialectical polarity, no more negati&e

electricity or implosion o2 poles) is hat each time allos 2or all the possibleinterpretations, e&en the most contradictory 4 all are true, in the sense that their truth is

exchangeable, in the image o2 the models 2rom hich they proceed, in a generalised

cycle

The communists attac* the socialist party as though they anted to shatter the %nion o2

the <e2t They sanction the idea that their reticence stems 2rom a more radical political

exigency In 2act, it is because they don8t ant poer But do they not ant it at this

con9uncture because it is un2a&orable 2or the <e2t in general, or because it is un2a&orable2or them ithin the %nion o2 the <e2t 4 or do they not ant it by de2inition> :hen

Berlinguer declares6 ;:e musn8t be 2rightened o2 seeing the communists seie poer in

Italy;, this means simultaneously6

4 that there is nothing to 2ear, since the communists, i2 they come to poer, ill changenothing in its 2undamental capitalist mechanism,

4 that there isn8t any ris* o2 their e&er coming to poer (2or the reason that they don8t

ant to) 4 and e&en i2 they did ta*e it up, they ill only e&er ield it by proxy,

4 that in 2act poer, genuine poer, no longer exists, and hence there is no ris* o2anybody seiing it or ta*ing it o&er,

4 but more6 I, Berlinguer, am not 2rightened o2 seeing the communists seie poer in

Italy 4 hich might appear e&ident, but not that much, since

4 this can also mean the contrary (no need o2 psychoanalysis here)6 I am frightened o2

seeing the communists seie poer (and ith good reason, e&en 2or a communist)

All the abo&e is simultaneously true

This is the secret o2 a discourse that is no longer only ambiguous, as political discourses

can be, but that con&eys the impossibility o2 a determinate position o2 poer, the

impossibility o2 a determinate position o2 discourse And this logic belongs to neither party It tra&erses all discourses ithout their anting it

+"



:ho ill unra&el this imbroglio> The ordian *not can at least be cut As 2or the

oebius strip, i2 it is split in to, it results in an additional spiral ithout there being any

possibility o2 resol&ing its sur2aces (here the re&ersible continuity o2 hypotheses) #adeso2 simulation, hich is no longer one o2 torture, but o2 the subtle, male2icent, elusi&e

tisting o2 meaning D 4 here e&en those condemned at Burgos are still a gi2t 2rom

Franco to :estern democracy, hich 2inds in them the occasion to regenerate its on2lagging humanism, and hose indignant protestation consolidates in return Franco8s

regime by uniting the Spanish masses against 2oreign inter&ention> :here is the truth in

all that, hen such collusions admirably *nit together ithout their authors e&en *noingit>

The con9unction o2 the system and its extreme alternati&e li*e to ends o2 a cur&ed

mirror, the ;&icious; cur&ature o2 a political space hence2orth magnetised, circularised,

re&ersibilised 2rom right o2 le2t, a torsion that is li*e the e&il demon o2 commutation, thehole system, the in2inity o2 capital 2olded bac* o&er its on sur2ace6 trans2inite> And

isn8t it the same ith desire and libidinal space> The con9unction o2 desire and &alue, o2

desire and capital The con9unction o2 desire and the la 4 the ultimate 9oy andmetamorphosis o2 the la (hich is hy it is so ell recei&ed at the moment)6 only

capital ta*es pleasure, <yotard said, be2ore coming to thin* that !e ta*e pleasure in

capital 3&erhelming &ersatility o2 desire in ?eleue, an enigmatic re&ersal hich

brings this desire that is ;re&olutionary by itsel2, and as i2 in&oluntarily, in anting hatit ants;, to ant its on repression and to in&est paranoid and 2ascist systems> A

malign torsion hich reduces this re&olution o2 desire to the same 2undamental ambiguity

as the other, historical re&olution

All the re2erentials intermingle their discourses in a circular, oebian compulsion 'ot solong ago sex and or* ere sa&agely opposed terms6 today both are dissol&ed into the

same type o2 demand Formerly the discourse on history too* its 2orce 2rom opposingitsel2 to the one on nature, the discourse on desire to the one on poertoday theyexchange their signi2iers and their scenarios

It ould ta*e too long to run through the hole range o2 operational negati&ity, o2 all

those scenarios o2 deterrence hich, li*e :atergate, try to regenerate a moribund

principle by simulated scandal, phantasm, murder4a sort o2 hormonal treatment bynegati&ity and crisis It is alays a 7uestion o2 pro&ing the real by the imaginary, pro&ing

truth by scandal, pro&ing the la by transgression, pro&ing or* by the stri*e, pro&ing

the system by crisis and capital by re&olution, as 2or that matter pro&ing ethnology by thedispossession o2 its ob9ect (the Tasaday) 4 ithout counting6

4 pro&ing theatre by anti4theatre

4 pro&ing art by anti4art

4 pro&ing pedagogy by anti4pedagogy

4 pro&ing psychiatry by anti4psychiatry, etc, etc

+1





one o2 hose 2unctions is precisely to de&our e&ery attempt at simulation, to reduce

e&erything to some reality 4 that8s exactly ho the established order is, ell be2ore

institutions and 9ustice come into play

In this impossibility o2 isolating the process o2 simulation must be seen the hole thrust

o2 an order that can only see and understand in terms o2 some reality, because it can2unction nohere else The simulation o2 an o22ence, i2 it is patent, ill either be

punished more lightly (because it has no ;conse7uences;) or be punished as an o22ence to public o22ice (2or example, i2 one triggered o22 a police operation ;2or nothing;) 4 but

never as simulation, since it is precisely as such that no e7ui&alence ith the real is

possible, and hence no repression either The challenge o2 simulation is irrecei&able by poer #o can you punish the simulation o2 &irtue> et as such it is as serious as the

simulation o2 crime Parody ma*es obedience and transgression e7ui&alent, and that is the

most serious crime, since it cancels out the difference upon !hich the la! is based Theestablished order can do nothing against it, 2or the la is a second4order simulacrum

hereas simulation is third4order, beyond true and 2alse, beyond e7ui&alences, beyond

the rational distinctions upon hich 2unction all poer and the entire social #ence, failing the real , it is here that e must aim at order

This is hy order alays opts 2or the real In a state o2 uncertainty, it alays pre2ers this

assumption (thus in the army they ould rather ta*e the simulator as a true madman) But

this becomes more and more di22icult, 2or it is practically impossible to isolate the process o2 simulation, through the 2orce o2 inertia o2 the real hich surrounds us, the

in&erse is also true (and this &ery re&ersibility 2orms part o2 the apparatus o2 simulation

and o2 poer8s impotency)6 namely, it is no! impossible to isolate the process of the real ,

or to pro&e the real

Thus all hold4ups, hi9ac*s and the li*e are no as it ere simulation hold4ups, in thesense that they are inscribed in ad&ance in the decoding and orchestration rituals o2 the

media, anticipated in their mode o2 presentation and possible conse7uences In brie2,here they 2unction as a set o2 signs dedicated exclusi&ely to their recurrence as signs,

and no longer to their ;real; goal at all But this does not ma*e them ino22ensi&e 3n the

contrary, it is as hyperreal e&ents, no longer ha&ing any particular contents or aims, but

inde2initely re2racted by each other (2or that matter li*e so4called historical e&ents6stri*es, demonstrations, crises, etc !), that they are precisely un&eri2iable by an order

hich can only exert itsel2 on the real and the rational, on ends and means6 a re2erential

order hich can only dominate re2erentials, a determinate poer hich can onlydominate a determined orld, but hich can do nothing about that inde2inite recurrence

o2 simulation, about that eightless nebula no longer obeying the la o2 gra&itation o2

the real 4 poer itsel2 e&entually brea*ing apart in this space and becoming a simulationo2 poer (disconnected 2rom its aims and ob9ecti&es, and dedicated to po!er effects and

mass simulation)

The only eapon o2 poer, its only strategy against this de2ection, is to rein9ect realness

and re2erentiality e&eryhere, in order to con&ince us o2 the reality o2 the social, o2 thegra&ity o2 the economy and the 2inalities o2 production For that purpose it pre2ers the

+!





discourse o2 crisis, but also 4 hy not> 4 the discourse o2 desire ;Ta*e your desires 2or

realityE; can be understood as the ultimate slogan o2 poer, 2or in a non4re2erential orld

e&en the con2usion o2 the reality principle ith the desire principle is less dangerous thancontagious hyperreality 3ne remains among principles, and there poer is alays right

#yperreality and simulation are deterrents o2 e&ery principle and o2 e&ery ob9ecti&e= theyturn against poer this deterrence hich is so ell utilised 2or a long time itsel2 For,

2inally, it as capital hich as the 2irst to 2eed throughout its history on the destructiono2 e&ery re2erential, o2 e&ery human goal, hich shattered e&ery ideal distinction beteen

true and 2alse, good and e&il, in order to establish a radical la o2 e7ui&alence and

exchange, the iron la o2 its poer It as the 2irst to practice deterrence, abstraction,disconnection, deterritorialisation, etc= and i2 it as capital hich 2ostered reality, the

reality principle, it as also the 2irst to li7uidate it in the extermination o2 e&ery use

&alue, o2 e&ery real e7ui&alence, o2 production and ealth, in the &ery sensation e ha&eo2 the unreality o2 the sta*es and the omnipotence o2 manipulation 'o, it is this &ery

logic hich is today hardened e&en more against it And hen it ants to 2ight this

catastrophic spiral by secreting one last glimmer o2 reality, on hich to 2ound one lastglimmer o2 poer, it only multiplies the signs and accelerates the play o2 simulation

As long as it as historically threatened by the real, poer ris*ed deterrence and

simulation, disintegrating e&ery contradiction by means o2 the production o2 e7ui&alent

signs :hen it is threatened today, by simulation (the threat o2 &anishing in the play o2signs), poer ris*s the real, ris*s crisis, it gambles on remanu2acturing arti2icial, social,

economic, political sta*es This is a 7uestion o2 li2e or death 2or it But it is too late

:hence the characteristic hysteria o2 our time6 the hysteria o2 production and

reproduction o2 the real The other production, that o2 goods and commodities, that o2 la

belle epo*ue o2 political economy, no longer ma*es any sense o2 its on, and has not 2orsome time :hat society see*s through production, and o&erproduction, is the restoration

o2 the real hich escapes it That is hy contemporary +material+ production is itself

hyperreal It retains all the 2eatures, the hole discourse o2 traditional production, but it

is nothing more than its scaled4don re2raction (thus the hyperrealists 2asten in a stri*ing

resemblance a real 2rom hich has 2led all meaning and charm, all the pro2undity and

energy o2 representation) Thus the hyperrealism o2 simulation is expressed e&eryhere by the real8s stri*ing resemblance to itsel2

Poer, too, 2or sometime no produces nothing but signs o2 its resemblance And at the

same time, another 2igure o2 poer comes into play6 that o2 a collecti&e demand 2or signs

o2 poer 4 a holy union hich 2orms around the disappearance o2 poer 5&erybody belongs to it more or less in 2ear o2 the collapse o2 the political And in the end the game

o2 poer comes don to nothing more than the critical obsession ith poer 4 an

obsession ith its death, an obsession ith its sur&i&al, the greater the more it disappears:hen it has totally disappeared, logically e ill be under the total spell o2 poer 4 a

haunting memory already 2oreshadoed e&eryhere, mani2esting at one and the same

time the compulsion to get rid o2 it (nobody ants it any more, e&erbody unloads it onothers) and the apprehensi&e pining o&er its loss elancholy 2or societies ithout

+@



poer6 this has already 2ascism, that o&erdose o2 a poer2ul re2erential in a society hich

cannot terminate its mourning

But e are still in the same boat6 none o2 our societies *nos ho to manage itsmourning 2or the real, 2or poer, 2or the social itself , hich is implicated in this same

brea*don And it is by an arti2icial re&italisation o2 all this that e try to escape it#ndoubtedly this !ill even end up in socialism By an un2oreseen tist o2 e&ents and an

irony hich no longer belongs to history, it is through the death o2 the social thatsocialism ill emerge 4 as it is through the death o2 od that religions emerge A tisted

coming, a per&erse e&ent, an unintelligible re&ersion to the logic o2 reason As is the 2act

that poer is no longer present except to conceal that there is none A simulation hichcan go on inde2initely, since 4 unli*e ;true; poer hich is, or as, a structure, a

strategy, a relation o2 2orce, a sta*e 4 this is nothing but the ob9ect o2 a social demand , and

hence sub9ect to the la o2 supply and demand, rather than to &iolence and death$ompletely expunged 2rom the political dimension, it is dependent, li*e any other

commodity, on production and mass consumption Its spar* has disappeared 4 only the

2iction o2 a political uni&erse is sa&ed

<i*eise ith or* The spar* o2 production, the &iolence o2 its sta*e no longer exists5&erybody still produces, and more and more, but or* has subtly become something

else6 a need (as arx ideally en&isaged it, but not at all in the same sense), the ob9ect o2 a

social ;demand,; li*e leisure, to hich it is e7ui&alent in the general run o2 li2e8s optionsA demand exactly proportional to the loss o2 sta*e in the or* process @ The same

change in 2ortune as 2or poer6 the scenario o2 or* is there to conceal the 2act that the

or*4real, the production4real, has disappeared And 2or that matter so has the stri*e4real

too, hich is no longer a stoppage o2 or*, but its alternati&e pole in the ritual scansiono2 the social calendar It is as i2 e&eryone has ;occupied; their or* place or or* post,

a2ter declaring the stri*e, and resumed production, as is the custom in a ;sel24managed; 9ob, in exactly the same terms as be2ore, by declaring themsel&es (and &irtually being) ina state o2 permanent stri*e

This isn8t a science42iction dream6 e&eryhere it is a 7uestion o2 a doubling o2 the or*

process And o2 a double or locum 2or the stri*e process4stri*es hich are incorporated

li*e obsolescence in ob9ects, li*e crisis in production Then there is no longer any stri*esor or*, but both simultaneously, that is to say something else entirely6 a !iardry of

!or , a trompe l%oeil , a scenodrama (not to say melodrama) o2 production, collecti&e

dramaturgy upon the empty stage o2 the social

It is no longer a 7uestion o2 the ideology o2 or* 4 o2 the traditional ethic that obscuresthe ;real; labour process and the ;ob9ecti&e; process o2 exploitation4but o2 the scenario o2

or* <i*eise, it is no longer a 7uestion o2 the ideology o2 poer, but o2 the scenario o2

poer Ideology only corresponds to a betrayal o2 reality by signs= simulationcorresponds to a short4circuit o2 reality and to its reduplication by signs It is alays the

aim o2 ideological analysis to restore the ob9ecti&e process= it is alays a 2alse problem to

ant to restore the truth beneath the simulacrum

+-






This is ultimately hy poer is so in accord ith ideological discourses and discourses

on ideology, 2or these are all discourses o2 truth 4 alays good, e&en and especially i2

they are re&olutionary, to counter the mortal blos o2 simulation

The End of the &anopticon

It is again to this ideology o2 the li&ed experience, o2 exhumation, o2 the real in its

2undamental banality, in its radical authenticity, that the American TG4&erite experiment

on the <oud 2amily in +/-+ re2ers6 - months o2 uninterrupted shooting 1 hours o2direct non4stop broadcasting, ithout script or scenario, the odyssey o2 a 2amily, its

dramas, its 9oys, ups and dons 4 in brie2, a ;ra; historical document, and the ;best

thing e&er on tele&ision, comparable, at the le&el o2 our daily existence, to the 2ilm o2 thelunar landing; Things are complicated by the 2act that this 2amily came apart during the

shooting6 a crisis 2lared up, the <ouds ent their separate ays, etc :hence that

insoluble contro&ersy6 as TG responsible> :hat ould ha&e happened if T hadn%t

been there

ore interesting is the phantasm o2 2ilming the <ouds as if T !asn%t there The

producer8s trump card as to say6 ;They li&ed as i2 e eren8t there; An absurd,

paradoxical 2ormula 4 neither true, nor 2alse6 but utopian The ;as i2 !e eren8t there; is

e7ui&alent to ;as i2 you ere there; It is this utopia, this paradox that 2ascinated "million &ieers, much more than the ;per&erse; pleasure o2 prying In this ;truth;

experiment, it is neither a 7uestion o2 secrecy nor o2 per&ersion, but o2 a *ind o2 thrill o2

the real, or o2 an aesthetics o2 the hyperreal, a thrill o2 &ertiginous and phony exactitude,a thrill o2 alienation and o2 magni2ication, o2 distortion in scale, o2 excessi&e transparency

all at the same time The 9oy in an excess o2 meaning, hen the bar o2 the sign slips

belo the regular ater line o2 meaning6 the non4signi2ier is ele&ated by the camera

angle #ere the real can be seen to ha&e ne&er existed (but ;as i2 you ere there;),ithout the distance hich produces perspecti&e space and our depth &ision (but ;more

true than nature;) Joy in the microscopic simulation hich trans2orms the real into thehyperreal (This is also a little li*e hat happens in porno, here 2ascination is more

metaphysical than sexual)

This 2amily as in any case already somehat hyperreal by its &ery selection6 a typical,

$ali2ornia4housed, 14garage, !4children, ell4to4do pro2essional upper middle class idealAmerican 2amily ith an ornamental housei2e In a ay, it is this statistical per2ection

hich dooms it to death This ideal heroine o2 the American ay o2 li2e is chosen, as in

sacri2icial rites, to be glori2ied and to die under the 2iery glare o2 the studio lights, a

modern 2atum For the hea&enly 2ire no longer stri*es depra&ed cities, it is rather the lenshich cuts through ordinary reality li*e a laser, putting it to death ;The <ouds6 simply a

2amily ho agreed to deli&er themsel&es into the hands o2 tele&ision, and to die 2rom it;,

said the producer So it is really a 7uestion o2 a sacri2icial process, o2 a sacri2icialspectacle o22ered to " million Americans The liturgical drama o2 a mass society

TG4&erite Admirable ambi&alent terms6 does it re2er to the truth o2 this 2amily, or to the

truth o2 TG> In 2act, it is TG hich is the <oud8s truth, it is it hich is true, it is it hich

+0



renders true A truth hich is no longer the re2lexi&e truth o2 the mirror, nor the

perspecti&e truth o2 the panoptic system and o2 the gae, but the manipulati&e truth o2 the

test hich probes and interrogates, o2 the laser hich touches and then pierces, o2computer cards hich retain your punchedout se7uences, o2 the genetic code hich

regulates your combinations, o2 cells hich in2orm your sensory uni&erse It is to this

*ind o2 truth that the <oud 2amily is sub9ected by the TG medium, and in this sense itreally amounts to a death sentence (but is it still a 7uestion o2 truth>)

The end of the panoptic system.

The eye o2 TG is no longer the source o2 an absolute gae, and the ideal o2 control is no

longer that o2 transparency The latter still presupposes an ob9ecti&e space (that o2 theCenaissance) and the omnipotence o2 a despotic gae This is still, i2 not a system o2

con2inement, at least a system o2 scrutiny 'o longer subtle, but alays in a position o2

exteriority, playing on the opposition beteen seeing and being seen, e&en i2 the 2ocal

point o2 the panopticon may be blind

It is entirely di22erent hen ith the <ouds ;ou no longer atch TG, TG atches you

(li&e),; or again6 ;ou no longer listen to Pas de Pani7ue, Pas de Pani7ue listens to you; 4

sitching o&er 2rom the panoptic apparatus o2 sur&eillance (o2 Discipline and &unish) to

a system o2 deterrence, here the distinction beteen acti&e and passi&e is abolished 'olonger is there any imperati&e to submit to the model, or to the gae ;3% are the

modelE; ;3% are the ma9orityE; Such is the slope o2 a hyperrealist sociality, here the

real is con2used ith the model, as in the statistic operation, or ith the medium, as in the<oud8s operation Such is the later stage o2 de&elopment o2 the social relation, our on,

hich is no longer one o2 persuasion (the classical age o2 propaganda, ideology,

publicity, etc) but one o2 dissuasion or deterrence6 ;3% are nes, you are the social,

the e&ent is you, you are in&ol&ed, you can use your &oice, etc; A turnabout o2 a22airs byhich it becomes impossible to locate an instance o2 the model, o2 poer, o2 the gae, o2

the medium itsel2, since you are alays already on the other side 'o more sub9ect, 2ocal point, center or periphery6 but pure 2lexion or circular in2lection 'o more &iolence or

sur&eillance6 only ;in2ormation=; secret &irulence, chain reaction, slo implosion and

simulacra o2 spaces here the real4e22ect again comes into play

:e are itnessing the end o2 perspecti&e and panoptic space (hich remains a moral

hypothesis bound up ith e&ery classical analysis o2 the ;ob9ecti&e; essence o2 poer),

and hence the very abolition of the spectacular Tele&ision, in the case o2 the <ouds 2orexample, is no longer a spectacular medium :e are no longer in the society o2 spectacle

hich the situationists tal*ed about, nor in the speci2ic types o2 alienation and repression

hich this implied The medium itsel2 is no longer identi2iable as such, and the mergingo2 the medium and the message (c<uhan -) is the 2irst great 2ormula o2 this ne age

There is no longer any medium in the literal sense6 it is no intangible, di22use and

di22racted in the real, and it can no longer e&en be said that the latter is distorted by it

+/





Such immixture, such a &iral, endemic, chronic, alarming presence o2 the medium,

ithout our being able to isolate its e22ects spectralised, li*e those publicity holograms

sculptured in empty space ith laser beams, the e&ent 2iltered by the medium 4 thedissolution o2 TG into li2e, the dissolution o2 li2e into TG 4 an indiscernible chemical

solution6 e are all <ouds, doomed not to in&asion, to pressure, to &iolence and to

blac*mail by the media and the models, but to their induction, to their in2iltration, to theirillegible &iolence

But e must be care2ul o2 the negati&e tist discourse gi&es this6 it is a 7uestion neither

o2 an illness nor o2 a &iral complaint Cather, e must thin* o2 the media as i2 they ere,

in outer orbit, a sort o2 genetic code hich controls the mutation o2 the real into thehyperreal, 9ust as the other, micromolecular code controls the passage o2 the signal 2rom a

representati&e sphere o2 meaning to the genetic sphere o2 the programmed signal

The hole traditional mode o2 causality is brought into 7uestion6 the perspecti&e,

deterministic mode, the ;acti&e,; critical mode, the analytical mode 4 the distinction

beteen cause and e22ect, beteen acti&e and passi&e, beteen sub9ect and ob9ect, beteen ends and means It is in this mode that it can be said6 TG atches us, TG

alienates us, TG manipulates us, TG in2orms us Throughout all this one is dependenton the analytical conception hose &anishing point is the horion beteen reality and

meaning

3n the contrary, e must imagine TG on the ?'A model, as an e22ect in hich the

opposing poles o2 determination &anish according to a nuclear contraction or retraction o2the old polar schema hich has alays maintained a minimal distance beteen a cause

and an e22ect, beteen the sub9ect and an ob9ect6 precisely, the meaning gap, the

discrepancy, the di22erence, the smallest possible margin o2 error, irreductible under

penalty o2 reabsorption in an aleatory and indeterminable process hich discourse can nolonger e&en account 2or, since it is itsel2 a determinable order

It is this gap hich &anishes in the genetic coding process, here indeterminacy is less a

product o2 molecular randomness than a product o2 the abolition, pure and simple, o2 therelation In the process o2 molecular control, hich ;goes; 2rom the ?'A nucleus to the

;substance; it ;in2orms,; there is no more tra&ersing o2 an e22ect, o2 an energy, o2 a

determination, o2 any message ;3rder, signal, impulse, message;6 all these attempt torender the matter intelligible to us, but by analogy, retranscribing in terms o2 inscription,

&ector, decoding, a dimension o2 hich e *no nothing 4 it is no longer e&en a

;dimension=; or perhaps it is the 2ourth (that hich is de2ined, hoe&er, in 5insteinian

relati&ity, by the absorption o2 the distinct poles o2 space and time) In 2act, this hole process only ma*es sense to us in the negati&e 2orm But nothing separates one pole 2rom

the other, the initial 2rom the terminal6 there is 9ust a sort o2 contraction into each other, a

2antastic telescoping, a collapsing o2 the to traditional pales into one another anIP<3SI3' 4 an absorption o2 the radiating model o2 causality, o2 the di22erential mode

o2 determination, ith its positi&e and negati&e electricity 4 an implosion o2 meaning

This is !here simulation begins

"



5&eryhere, in hate&er political, biological, psychological, media domain, here the

distinction beteen poles can no longer be maintained, one enters into simulation, and

hence into absolute manipulation 4 not passi&ity, but the non-distinction of active and passive ?'A realises this aleatory reduction at the le&el o2 the li&ing substance

Tele&ision itsel2, in the example o2 the <ouds, also attains this indefinite limit here the

2amily vis-a-vis TG are no more or less acti&e or passi&e than is a li&ing substance vis-a-vis its molecular code In both there is only a nebula indecipherable into its simple

elements, indecipherable as to its truth

/rbital and )uclear

The nuclear is the apotheosis o2 simulation et the balance o2 terror is nothing more thanthe spectacular slope o2 a system o2 deterrence that has crept 2rom the inside into all the

crac*s o2 daily li2e The nuclear cli224hanger only seals the tri&ialised system o2

deterrence at the heart o2 the media, o2 the inconse7uential &iolence that reigns

throughout the orld, o2 the aleatory contri&ance o2 e&ery choice hich is made 2or us

The slightest details o2 our beha&iour are ruled by neutralised, indi22erent, e7ui&alentsigns, by ero4sum signs li*e those hich regulate ;game strategy; (but the genuine

e7uation is elsehere, and the un*non is precisely that &ariable o2 simulation hichma*es the atomic arsenal itsel2 a hyperreal 2orm, a simulacrum hich dominates us all

and reduces all ;groundle&el; e&ents to mere ephemeral scenarios, trans2orming the only

li2e le2t to us into sur&i&al, into a ager ithout ta*ersnot e&en into a death policy6 butinto a policy de&aluated in ad&ance)

It isn8t that the direct menace o2 atomic destruction paralyses our li&es It is rather that

deterrence leu*emises us And this deterrence come 2rom the &ery situation hich

excludes the real atomic clash 4 excludes it be2orehand li*e the e&entuality o2 the real in a

system o2 signs 5&erybody pretends to belie&e in the reality o2 this menace (oneunderstands it 2rom the military point o2 &ie, the hole seriousness o2 their exercise,

and the discourse o2 their ;strategy,; is at sta*e)6 but there are precisely no strategicsta*es at this le&el, and the hole originality o2 the situation lies in the improbability o2

destruction

?eterrence excludes ar 4 the anti7uated &iolence o2 expanding systems ?eterrence is

the neutral, implosi&e &iolence o2 metastable or in&ol&ing systems There is no sub9ect o2deterrence any more, nor ad&ersary, nor strategy 4 it is a planetary structure o2 the

annihilation o2 sta*es Atomic ar, li*e that o2 Troy, ill not ta*e place The ris* o2

nuclear atomisation only ser&es as a pretext, through the sophistication o2 arms4but this

sophistication exceeds any possible ob9ecti&e to such an extent that it is itsel2 a symptomo2 nonexistence 4 to the installation o2 a uni&ersal system o2 security, lin*up, and control

hose deterrent e22ect does not aim 2or atomic clash at all (the latter has ne&er been a real

possibility, except no doubt right at the beginning o2 the cold ar, hen the nuclear posture as con2used ith con&entional ar) but really the much larger probability o2

any real e&ent, o2 anything hich could disturb the general system and upset the balance

The balance o2 terror is the terror o2 balance

"+



?eterrence is not a strategy It circulates and is exchanged beteen the nuclear

protagonists exactly li*e international capital in that orbital one o2 monetary speculation,

hose 2lo is su22icient to control all global 2inance Thus ill money (not re2erring toreal *illing, any more than 2loating capital re2ers to real production) circulating in nuclear

orbit is su22icient to control all &iolence and potential con2lict on the globe

:hat stirs in the shado o2 this posture, under the pretext o2 a maximal ;ob9ecti&e;

menace, and than*s to that nuclear sord o2 ?amocles, is the per2ection o2 the bestsystem o2 control hich has ne&er existed And the progressi&e satellisation o2 the hole

planet by that hypermodel o2 security

The same goes 2or peaceful nuclear installations Paci2ication doesn8t distinguish beteenthe ci&il and the military6 here&er irre&ersible apparatuses o2 control are elaborated,

here&er the notion o2 security becomes absolute, here&er the norm o2 security replaces

the 2ormer arsenal o2 las and &iolence (including ar), the system o2 deterrence gros,

and around it gros an historical, social and political desert A huge in&olution ma*es

e&ery con2lict, e&ery opposition, e&ery act o2 de2iance contract in proportion to this blac*mail hich interrupts, neutralises and 2reees them 'o mutiny, no history can

un2url any more according to its on logic since it ris*s annihilation 'o strategy is e&en possible any more, and escalation is only a puerile game le2t to the military The political

sta*e is dead 3nly simulacra o2 con2lict and care2ully circumscribed sta*es remain

The ;space race; played exactly the same role as the nuclear race This is hy it as so

easily able to ta*e o&er 2rom it in the 8@8s (Hennedy Hhrushche&), or to de&elopconcurrently in a mode o2 ;peace2ul coexistence; For hat is the ultimate 2unction o2 the

space race, o2 lunar con7uest, o2 satellite launchings, i2 not the institution o2 a model o2

uni&ersal gra&itation, o2 satellisation, hose per2ect embryo is the lunar module6 a

programmed microcosm, here nothing can be left to chance> Tra9ectory, energy,computation, physiology, psychology, the en&ironment 4 nothing can be le2t to

contingency, this is the total uni&erse o2 the norm 4 the <a no longer exists, it is theoperational immanence o2 e&ery detail hich is la A uni&erse purged o2 e&ery threat to

the senses, in a state o2 asepsis and eightlessness 4 it is this &ery per2ection hich is

2ascinating For the exaltation o2 the masses as not in response to the lunar landing or

the &oyage o2 man in space (this is rather the 2ul2illment o2 an earlier dream) 4 no, e aredumb2ounded by the per2ection o2 their planning and technical manipulation, by the

immanent onder o2 programmed de&elopment Fascinated by the maximisation o2

norms and by the mastery o2 probability %nbalanced by the model, as e are by death, but ithout 2ear or impulse For i2 the la, ith its aura o2 transgression, i2 order, ith its

aura o2 &iolence, still taps a per&erse imaginary, then the norm 2ixes, hypnotises,

dumb2ounds, causing e&ery imaginary to in&ol&e :e no longer 2antasise about e&eryminutia o2 a program Its obser&ance alone unbalances The &ertigo o2 a 2laless orld

The same model o2 planned in2allibility, o2 maximal security and deterrence, no

go&erns the spread o2 the social That is the true nuclear 2allout6 the meticulous operation

o2 technology ser&es as a model 2or the meticulous operation o2 the social #ere, too,nothing !ill be left to chance= moreo&er, this is the essence o2 socialisation, hich has

""



should ha&e necessarily disturbed the internal balance o2 the American political system

But no such thing happened

#ence something else too* place %ltimately this ar as only a crucial episode in a peace2ul coexistence It mar*ed the ad&ent o2 $hina to peace2ul coexistence The long

sought4a2ter securing and concretising o2 $hina8s non4inter&ention, $hina8sapprenticeship in a global modus vivendi, the passing 2rom a strategy o2 orld re&olution

to one o2 a sharing o2 2orces and empires, the transition 2rom a radical alternati&e to political alternation in a no almost settled system (normalisation o2 Pe*ing4:ashington

relations)6 all this as the sta*e o2 the Gietnam ar, and in that sense, the %SA pulled out

o2 Gietnam but they on the ar

And the ar ;spontaneously; came to an end hen the ob9ecti&e had been attained This

is hy it as de4escalated, demobilised so easily

The e22ects o2 this same remolding are legible in the 2ield The ar lasted as long as there

remained unli7uidated elements irreducible to a healthy politics and a discipline o2 poer, e&en a communist one :hen 2inally the ar passed 2rom the resistance to the

hands o2 regular 'orthern troops, it could stop6 it had attained its ob9ecti&e Thus the

sta*e as a political relay :hen the Gietnamese pro&ed they ere no longer bearers o2

an unpredictable sub&ersion, it could be handed o&er to them That this as communistorder asn8t 2undamentally serious6 it had pro&ed itsel2, it could be trusted They are e&en

more e22ecti&e than capitalists in li7uidating ;primiti&e; precapitalist and anti7uated

structures

Same scenario as in the Algerian ar

The other aspect o2 this ar and o2 all ars since6 behind the armed &iolence, themurderous antagonism beteen ad&ersaries 4 hich seems a matter o2 li2e and death, and

hich is played as such (otherise you could ne&er send out people to get smashed up inthis *ind o2 trouble), behind this simulacrum o2 a struggle to death and o2 ruthless global

sta*es, the to ad&ersaries are 2undamentally as one against that other, unnamed, ne&er

mentioned thing, hose ob9ecti&e outcome in ar, ith e7ual complicity beteen the to

ad&ersaries, is total li7uidation It is tribal, communal, pre4capitalist structures, e&ery2orm o2 exchange, language and symbolic organisation hich must be abolished Their

murder is the ob9ect o2 ar 4 and in its immense spectacular contri&ance o2 death, ar is

only the medium o2 this process o2 terrorist rationalisation by the social 4 the murderthrough hich sociality can be 2ounded, no matter hat allegiance, communist or

capitalist The total complicity or di&ision o2 labour beteen to ad&ersaries (ho can

e&en ma*e huge sacri2ices to reach that) 2or the &ery purpose o2 remolding anddomesticating social relations

;The 'orth Gietnamese ere ad&ised to countenance a scenario o2 the li7uidation o2 the

American presence through hich, o2 course, honour must be preser&ed;

"D



The scenario6 the extremely hea&y bombardment o2 #anoi The intolerable nature o2 this

bombing should not conceal the 2act that it as only a simulacrum to allo the

Gietnamese to seem to countenance a compromise and 'ixon to ma*e the Americanssallo the retreat o2 their 2orces The game as already on, nothing as ob9ecti&ely at

sta*e but the credibility o2 the 2inal montage

oralists about ar, champions o2 ar8s exalted &alues should not be greatly upset6 a ar

is not any the less heinous 2or being a mere simulacrum 4 the 2lesh su22ers 9ust the same,and the dead ex4combatants count as much there as in other ars That ob9ecti&e is

alays amply accomplished, li*e that o2 the partitioning o2 territories and o2 disciplinary

sociality :hat no longer exists is the ad&ersity o2 ad&ersaries, the reality o2 antagonisticcauses, the ideological seriousness o2 ar 4 also the reality o2 de2eat or &ictory, ar being

a process hose triumph lies 7uite beyond these appearances

In any case, the paci2ication (or deterrence) dominating us today is beyond ar and

peace, the simultaneous e7ui&alence o2 peace and ar ;:ar is peace,; said 3rell #ere,

also, the to di22erential poles implode into each other, or recycle one another 4 asimultaneity o2 contradictions that is both the parody and the end o2 all dialectic Thus it

is possible to miss the truth o2 a ar6 namely, that it as ell o&er be2ore reaching aconclusion, that at its &ery core, ar as brought to an end, and that perhaps it ne&er e&er

began any other such e&ents (the oil crisis, etc,) never began, ne&er existed, except that

arti2icial mishaps 4 abstracts, ersates o2 troubles, catastrophes and crises intended tomaintain a historical and psychological in&estment under hypnosis All media and the

o22icial nes ser&ice only exist to maintain the illusion o2 actuality 4 o2 the reality o2 the

sta*es, o2 the ob9ecti&ity o2 the 2acts All e&ents are to be read in re&erse, here one

percei&es (as ith the communists ;in poer; in Italy, the posthumous, ;nostalgic;redisco&ery o2 gulags and So&iet dissidents li*e the almost contemporary redisco&ery, by

a moribund ethnology, o2 the lost ;di22erence; o2 Sa&ages) that all these things arri&e toolate, ith an o&erdue history, a lagging spiral, that they ha&e exhausted their meaninglong in ad&ance and only sur&i&e on an arti2icial e22er&escence o2 signs, that all these

e&ents 2ollo on illogically 2rom one another, ith a total e7uanimity toards the

greatest inconsistencies, ith a pro2ound indi22erence to their conse7uences (but this is because there are none any more6 they burn out in their spectacular promotion) 4 thus the

hole nesreel o2 ;the present; gi&es the sinister impression o2 *itsch, retro and porno

all at the same timedoubtless e&eryone *nos this, and nobody really accepts it Thereality o2 simulation is unendurable 4 more cruel than Artaud8s Theatre o2 $ruelty, hich

as still an attempt at a dramaturgy o2 li2e, the last 2lic*ering o2 an ideal o2 the body,

blood and &iolence in a system already seeping toards a reabsorption o2 all the sta*es

ithout a trace o2 blood For us the tric* has been played All dramaturgy, and e&en allreal riting o2 cruelty has disappeared Simulation is master, and nostalgia, the

phantasmal parodic rehabilitation o2 all lost re2erentials, alone remain 5&erything still

un2olds be2ore us, in the cold light o2 deterrence (including Artaud, ho is entitled li*eall the rest to his re&i&al, to a second existence as the referential o2 cruelty)

This is hy nuclear proli2eration increases neither the chance o2 atomic clash nor o2

accident4sa&e in the inter&al here ;young; poers could be tempted to use them 2or

"!



non4deterrent or ;real; purposes (li*e the Americans did on #iroshima 4 but precisely

they alone ere entitled to this ;use &alue; o2 the bomb, hile all those ho ha&e since

ac7uired it are deterred 2rom using it by the &ery 2act o2 its possession) 5ntry into theatomic club, so amusingly named, &ery rapidly remo&es (li*e syndicalisation 2or the

or*ing orld) any inclination toards &iolent inter&ention Cesponsibility, control,

censorship, sel24deterrence alays increases 2aster than the 2orces or eapons at ourdisposal6 this is the secret o2 the social order Thus the &ery possibility o2 paralysing a

hole country ith the 2lic* o2 a sitch ma*es it impossible that electrical engineers ill

e&er utilise this eapon6 the entire myth o2 the re&olutionary and total stri*e collapses atthe &ery moment hen the means to so are a&ailable 4 but alas, exactly because the means

to do so are a&ailable This is deterrence in a nutshell

There2ore it is altogether li*ely that one day e shall see the nuclear poers exporting

atomic reactors, eapons and bombs to e&ery latitude A2ter control by threat illsucceed the much more e22ecti&e strategy o2 paci2ication by the bomb and by its

possession ;Small; poers, hoping to buy their independent stri*e 2orce, ill only buy

the &irus o2 deterrence, o2 their on deterrence The same goes 2or the atomic reactors eha&e already sent them6 so many neutron bombs *noc*ing out all historical &irulence, all

ris* o2 explosion In this sense, the nuclear system institutes a uni&ersally accelerated

process o2 implosion, it conceals e&erything around it, it absorbs all li&ing energy

The nuclear system is both the culminating point o2 a&ailable energy and themaximisation o2 systems controlling all energy <oc*don and control gro as 2ast as

(and undoubtedly e&en 2aster than) liberating potentialities This as already the aporia

o2 modern re&olutions It is still the absolute paradox o2 the nuclear system 5nergies

2reee by their on 2ire poer, they deter themsel&es 3ne can8t really see hat pro9ect,hat poer, hat strategy, hat sub9ect could possibly be behind this enclosure, this &ast

saturation o2 a system by its on herea2ter neutralised, unusable, unintelligible, non4explosi&e 2orces 4 except the possibility o2 an explosion to!ards the center , or animplosion here all these energies are abolished in a catastrophic process (in the literal

sense, that is to say in the sense o2 a re&ersion o2 the hole cycle toards a minimal

point, o2 a re&ersion o2 energies toards a minimal threshold)

Translated by &aul 0oss and &aul &atton

Notes

+) $2 J Baudrillard, 1%echange symboli*ue et la mort , (;<8ordre des simulacres;), Paris,

allimard, +/-!

") And hich is not susceptible to resolution in trans2erence It is the entanglement o2

these to discourses hich ma*es psychoanalysis interminable

1) $2 Perniola, ;Icones, Gisions, Simulacres,; Traverses234, p 1/

"@

http://www.ee.sun.ac.za/~hgibson/docs/html/Simulacra-and-Simulation.html#f1c1r








D) This does not necessarily result in a despair o2 meaning, but 9ust as much in an

impro&isation o2 meaning, o2 nonsense, or o2 se&eral simultaneous senses hich cancel

each other out

!) The energy crisis, the ecological setting, by and large, are themsel&es a disaster film,

in the same style (and o2 the same &alue) as those hich currently do so ell 2or#ollyood It is pointless to laboriously interpret these 2ilms by their relationship ith an

;ob9ecti&e; social crisis, or e&en ith an ;ob9ecti&e; phantasm o2 disaster It is in theother direction that e must say it is the social itself !hich, in contemporary discourse, is

organised according to a script for a disaster film ($2 a*arius, ;<a strategie de la

catastrophe,; Traverses234, p +!

@) To this 2lagging in&estment in or* corresponds a parallel declining in&estment in

consumption oodbye to use &alue or prestige o2 the automobile, goodbye to the

amorous discourse hich made a clearcut distinction beteen the ob9ect o2 en9oyment

and the ob9ect o2 or* Another discourse ta*es o&er, hich is a discourse of !or on the

ob$ect of consumption aiming at an acti&e, compelling, puritan rein&estment (use less gas,loo* to your security, speed is obsolete, etc), to hich automobile speci2ications pretend

to be adapted6 redisco&ering a sta*e by transposition o2 the poles Thus or* becomes theob9ect o2 a need, the car becomes the ob9ect o2 or* 4 no better proo2 o2 the inability to

distinguish the sta*es It is by the &ery sing o2 &oting ;rights; to electoral ;duties; that

the disin&estment o2 the political sphere is signaled

-) The mediummessage con2usion, o2 course, is a correlati&e o2 the con2usion beteensender and recei&er, thus sealing the disappearance o2 all the dual, polar structures hich

2ormed the discursi&e organisation o2 language, re2erring to the celebrated grid o2

2unctions in Jacobson, the organisation o2 all determinate articulation o2 meaning

;$ircular; discourse must be ta*en literally6 that is, it no longer goes 2rom one point tothe other but describes a circle that indistinctly incorporates the positions o2 transmitter

and recei&er, hence2orth unlocatable as such Thus there is no longer any instance o2 poer, any transmitting authority 4 poer is something that circulates and hose source

can no longer be located, a cycle in hich the positions o2 dominator and the dominated

interchange in an endless re&ersion hich is also the end o2 poer in its classical

de2inition The circularisation o2 poer, *noledge and discourse brings e&erylocalisation o2 instances and poles to an end 5&en in psychoanalytic interpretation, the

;poer; o2 the interpreter does not come 2rom any external authority, but 2rom the

interpreted themsel&es This changes e&erything, 2or e can alays as* the traditionalholders o2 poer here they get their poer 2rom :ho made you ?u*e> The Hing And

ho made the Hing> od od alone does not reply But to the 7uestion6 ho made the

psychoanalyst> the analyst 7uite easily replies6 ou Thus is expressed, by an in&ersesimulation, the passage 2rom the ;analysed; to the ;analysand,; 2rom acti&e to passi&e,

hich only goes to describe the sirling, mobile e22ect o2 the poles, its e22ect o2

circularity in hich poer is lost, is dissol&ed, is resol&ed into complete manipulation

(this is no longer o2 the order o2 the directi&e authority and the gae, but o2 the order o2 personal contact and commutation) See, also, the State2amily circularity secured by the

"-











2loating and metastatic regulation o2 images o2 the social and the pri&ate (J ?onelot,

The &olicing of 0amilies)

From no on, it is impossible to as* the 2amous 7uestion6;From hat position do you spea*>;

;#o do you *no>;;From here do you get the poer>;, ithout immediately getting the reply6 ;But it is

of (2rom) you that I spea*; 4 meaning, it is you ho spea*s, is is you ho *nos, poeris you A gigantic circon&olution, circumlocution o2 the spo*en ord, hich amounts to

irredeemable blac*mail and irremo&able deterrence o2 the sub9ect supposed to spea*, but

le2t ithout a ord to say, responseless, since to 7uestions as*ed can come the ine&itablereply6 but you are the reply, or6 your 7uestion is already an anser, etc 4 the hole

sophistical stranglehold o2 ord4tapping, 2orced con2ession disguised as 2ree expression,

trapping the sub9ect in his on 7uestioning, the precession o2 the reply about the 7uestion(the hole &iolence o2 interpretation is there, and the &iolence o2 the conscious or

unconscious sel24management o2 speech)

This simulacrum o2 in&ersion or in&olution o2 poles, this cle&er subter2uge hich is the

secret o2 the hole discourse o2 manipulation and hence, today, in e&ery domain, thesecret o2 all those ne poers seeping clean the stage o2 poer, 2orging the assumption

o2 all speech 2rom hich comes that 2antastic silent ma9ority characteristic o2 our times 4

all this undoubtedly began in the political sphere ith the democratic simulacrum, that isto say ith the substitution o2 the instance o2 the people 2or the instance o2 od as source

o2 poer, and the substitution o2 poer as representation 2or poer as emanation An

anti4$opernican re&olution6 no longer any transcendent instance nor any sun nor any

luminous source o2 poer and *noledge 4 e&erything comes 2rom and returns to the people It is this magni2icent recycling that the uni&ersal simulacrum o2 manipulation,

2rom the scenario o2 mass su22rage to present4day and illusory opinion polls, begins to beinstalled

0) Paradox6 all bombs are clean 4 their only pollution is the system o2 control and

security they radiate !hen they are not detonated

"0





The Orders of Simulacra

Three orders o2 appearance, parallel to the mutations o2 the la o2 &alue, ha&e 2olloed

one another since the Cenaissance6

4 Counterfeit is the dominant scheme o2 the ;classical; period, 2rom the Cenaissance tothe industrial re&olution=

4 &roduction is the dominant scheme o2 the industrial era=

4 (imulation is the reigning scheme o2 the current phase that is controlled by the code

The 2irst order o2 simulacrum is based on the natural la o2 &alue, that o2 the secondorder on the commercial la o2 &alue, that o2 the third order on the structural la o2

&alue

The (tucco 5ngel

$ounter2eit (and 2ashion at the same time) is born ith the Cenaissance, ith the

destructuring o2 the 2eudal order by the bourgeois order and the emergence o2 opencompetition on the le&el o2 the distincti&e signs There is no such thing as 2ashion in a

society o2 cast and ran*, since one is assigned a place irre&ocably, and so class mobility is

non4existent An interdiction protects the signs and assures them a total clarity= each eachsign then re2ers une7ui&ocally to a status <i*eise no counter2eit is possible ith the

ceremony 4 unless as blac* magic and sacrilege, and it is thus that any con2usion o2 signs

is punished6 as gra&e in2raction o2 the order o2 things I2 e are starting to dream again,today especially, o2 a orld o2 sure signs, o2 a strong ;symbolic order,; ma*e no mista*e

about it6 this order has existed and it as that o2 a 2erocious hierarchy, since transparencyand cruelty 2or signs go together In caste societies, 2eudal or archaic, cruel societies, the

signs are limited in number, and are not idely di22used, each one 2unctions ith its 2ull&alue as interdiction, each is a reciprocal obligation beteen castes, clans or persons The

signs there2ore are anything but arbitrary The arbitrary sign begins hen, instead o2

lin*ing to persons in an unbrea*able reciprocity, the signi2ier starts re2erring bac* to thedisenchanted uni&erse o2 the signi2ied, common denominator o2 the real orld toard

hich no one has any obligation

5nd o2 the obliged sign, reign o2 the emancipated sign, that all classes ill parta*e

e7ually o2 $ompetiti&e democracy succeeds the endogomy o2 signs proper to statutory

order At the same time e pass, ith the trans2er o2 &aluessigns o2 prestige 2rom oneclass to another, necessarily into counterfeit For e ha&e passed 2rom a limited order o2

signs, hich prohibits ;2ree production,; to a proli2eration o2 signs according to demandBut the sign multiplied no longer resembles in the slightest the obliged sign o2 limited

di22usion6 it is its counter2eit, not by corruption o2 an ;original;, but by extension o2 a

material hose &ery clarity depended on the restriction by hich it as bound 'o longerdiscriminating (it is no more than competiti&e), unburdened o2 all restraint, uni&ersally

a&ailable, the modern sign still simulates necessity in ta*ing itsel2 as tied someho to the

"/



orld The modern sign dreams o2 the signs o2 the past and ould ell appreciate 2inding

again, in its re2erence to the real, an obligation6 but hat it 2inds again is only a reason6

this re2erential reason, this real, this ;natural; o22 hich it is going to li&e But this bondo2 designation is only the simulacrum o2 symbolic obligation6 it produces neutral &alues

only, that can be exchanged in an ob9ecti&e orld The sign here su22ers the same destiny

as or* The ;2ree; or*er is 2ree only to produce e7ui&alents4the ;2ree andemancipated; sign is 2ree only to produce the signs o2 e7ui&alence

It is there2ore in the simulacrum o2 a ;nature; that the modern sign 2inds its &alue

Problematic o2 the ;natural,; metaphysics o2 reality and appearance6 that is the history o2

the bourgeoisie since the Cenaissance, mirror o2 the bourgeois sign, mirror o2 theclassical sign And still today the nostalgia 2or a natural re2erent o2 the sign is still ali&e,

in spite o2 the re&olutions that ha&e come to brea* up this con2iguration, including one in

production, here the signs re2er no longer to any nature, but only to the la o2exchange, and come under the commercial la o2 &alue

It is in the Cenaissance that the 2alse is born along ith the natural From the 2a*e shirt in2ront to the use o2 the 2or* as arti2icial prosthesis, to the stucco interiors and the great

baro7ue theatrical machinery The entire classical era belongs par excellence to thetheatre Theatre is the 2orm hich ta*es o&er social li2e and all o2 architecture 2rom the

Cenaissance on It8s there, in the proesses o2 stucco and baro7ue art, that you read the

metaphysic o2 the counter2eit and the ne ambitions o2 Cenaissance man 4 those o2 a!orldly demiurge, a transubstantiation o2 all o2 nature into a uni7ue substance, theatrical

li*e social li2e uni2iedunder the sign o2 bourgeois &alues, beyond all di22erences in blood,

ran*, or o2 caste Stucco means democracy triumphant o&er all arti2icial signs, the

apotheosis o2 theatre and 2ashion, and it betrays the ne classes8 in2inite capabilities, its poer to do anything once it has been able to brea* through the exclusi&eness o2 signs

The ay lies open to unheard4o2 combinations, to all the games, all the counter2eits 4 thePromethean &er&e o2 the bourgeoisie 2irst plunged into the imitation of nature be2orethroing itsel2 into production In the churches and palaces stucco is ed to all 2orms,

imitates e&erything 4 &el&et curtains, ooden corniches, charnel selling o2 the 2lesh

Stucco exorcies the unli*ely con2usion o2 matter into a single ne substance, a sort o2general e7ui&alent o2 all the others, and is prestigious theatrically because is itsel2 a

representati&e substance, a mirror o2 all the others

But simulacra are not only a game played ith signs= they imply social rapports and

social poer Stucco can come o22 as the exhaltation o2 a rising science and technology= itis also connected to the baro7ue 4 hich in turn is tied to the enterprise o2 the $ounter

Ce2ormation and the hegemony o&er the political and mental orld that the Jesuits 4 ho

ere the 2irst to act according to modern conceptions o2 poer 4 attempted to establish

There is a strict correlation beteen the mental obedience o2 the Jesuits (+perinde accadaver+ ) and the demiurgic ambition to exorcie the natural substance o2 a thing in

order to substitute a synthetic one Just li*e a man submitting his ill to his organiation,

things ta*e on the ideal 2unctionality o2 the cada&er All technology, all technocracy areincipiently there6 the presumption o2 an ideal counter2eit o2 the orld, expressed in the

1



in&ention o2 a uni&ersal substance and o2 a uni&ersal amalgam o2 substances Ceuni2y the

scattered orld (a2ter the Ce2ormation) under the aegis o2 a homogenous doctrine,

uni&ersalie the orld under a single ord (2rom 'e Spain to Japan6 the issions),constitute a political elite of the state, ith an identically centralied strategy6 these are

the ob9ecti&es o2 the Jesuits In order to accomplish this, you need to create e22ecti&e

simulacra6 the apparatus o2 the organiation is one, but also is cler*ly magni2icence andthe theatre (the great theatre o2 the cardinals and grey eminences) And training and

education are other simulacra that aimed, 2or the 2irst time e&er in a systematic manner, at

remodeling an ideal nature 2rom a child That architectural sauce o2 stucco and baro7ue isa great apparatus o2 the same *ind All o2 the abo&e precedes the producti&ist rationality

o2 capital, but e&erything testi2ies already 4 not in production, but in counter2eit to the

same pro9ect o2 control and uni&ersal hegemony 4 to a social scheme here the internal

coherence o2 a system is already at or*

3nce there li&ed in the Ardennes an old coo*, to hom the molding o2 buildings out o2

ca*es and the science o2 plastic patisserie had gi&en the ambition to ta*e up the creation

o2 the orld here od had le2t it, in its natural phase, so as to eliminate its organicspontaneity and substitute 2or it a single, uni7ue and polymorphous matter6 Cein2orced

$oncrete6 concrete 2urniture, chairs, draers, concrete seing machines, and outside in

the courtyard, an entire orchestra, including &iolins, o2 concrete 4 all concreteE $oncrete

trees ith real lea&es printed into them, a hog made out o2 rein2orced concrete, but ith areal hog8s s*ull inside, concrete sheep co&ered ith real ool $amille Cenault had

2inally 2ound the original substance, the paste 2rom hich di22erent things can only be

distinguished by ;realistic; nuance6 the hog8s s*ull, lea&es o2 the tree 4 but this asdoubtless only a concession o2 the demiurge to his &isitors 2or it as ith an adorable

smile that this 04year4old god recei&ed &isitors to his creation6 #e sought no argument

ith di&ine creation= he as rema*ing it only to render it more intelligible 'othing here

o2 a <uci2eran re&olt, or a ill4to4parody, or o2 a desire to espouse the cause o2 nai&e artThe Ardennes coo* reigned simply o&er a uni2ied mental substance (2or concrete is a

mental substance= it allos, 9ust li*e a concept, phenomena to be organied and di&ided

up at ill) #is pro9ect as not so 2ar 2rom that o2 the builders in stucco o2 baro7ue art,nor &ery di22erent 2rom the pro9ection on the terrain o2 an urban community in the current

great ensembles The counter2eit is or*ing, so 2ar, only on substance and 2orm, not yet

on relations and structures But it is aiming already, on this le&el, at the control o2 a paci2ied society, ground up into a synthetic, deathless substance6 an indestructible arti2act

that ill guarantee an eternity o2 poer Is it not man8s miracle to ha&e in&ented, ith

plastic, a non4degradable material, interrupting thus the cycle hich, by corruption anddeath, turns all the earth8s substances ceaselessly one into another> A substance out4o24

the4cycle= e&en 2ire lea&es an indestructible residue There is something incredible about

it, this simulacrum here you can see in a condensed 2orm the ambition o2 a uni&ersalsemiotic This has nothing to do ith the ;progress; o2 technology or ith a rational goal

2or science It is a pro9ect o2 political and cultural hegemony, the 2antasy o2 a closed

mental substance 4 li*e those angels o2 baro7ue stucco hose extremities meet in a

cur&ed mirror

1+



The 5utomation of the Robot

A hole orld separates these to arti2icial beings 3ne is a theatrical counter2eit, a

mechanical and cloc*4li*e man= techni7ue submits entirely to analogy and to the e22ect o2semblance The other is dominated by the technical principle= the machine o&errides all,

and ith the machine e*uivalence comes too The automaton plays the part o2 courtierand good company= it participates in the pre4Ce&olutionary French theatrical and social

games The robot, on the other hand, as his name indicates, is a or*er6 the theatre iso&er and done ith, the reign o2 mechanical man commences The automaton is the

analogy o2 man and remains his interlocutor (they play chess togetherE) The machine is

man8s e7ui&alent and annexes him to itsel2 in the unity o2 its operational process This isthe di22erence beteen a simulacrum o2 the 2irst order and one o2 the second

:e shouldn8t ma*e any mista*es on this matter 2or reasons o2 ;2igurati&e; resemblance

beteen robot and automaton The latter is an interrogation upon nature, the mystery o2

the existence or non4existence o2 the soul, the dilemma o2 appearance and being It is li*e

od6 hat8s underneath it all, hat8s inside, hat8s in the bac* o2 it> 3nly the counter2eitmen allo these problems to be posed The entire metaphysics o2 man as protagonist o2

the natural theatre o2 the creation is incarnated in the automaton, be2ore disappearingith the Ce&olution And the automaton has no other destiny than to be ceaselessly

compared to li&ing man 4 so as to be more natural than him, o2 hich he is the ideal

2igure A per2ect double 2or man, right up to the suppleness o2 his mo&ements, the2unctioning o2 his organs and intelligence 4 right up to touching upon the anguish there

ould be in becoming aare that there is no di22erence, that the soul is o&er ith and

no it is an ideally naturalied body hich absorbs its energy Sacrilege This di22erence

is then alays maintained, as in the case o2 that per2ect automaton that the impersonator8s 9er*y mo&ements on stage imitate= so that at least, e&en i2 the roles ere re&ersed, no

con2usion ould be possible In this ay the interrogation o2 the automaton remains anopen one, hich ma*es it out to be a *ind o2 mechanical optimist, e&en i2 the counter2eitalays connotes something diabolical +

'o such thing ith the robot The robot no longer interrogates appearance= its only truth

is in its mechanical e22icacy It is no longer turned toards a resemblance ith man, to

hom 2urthermore it no longer bears comparison That in2initesimal metaphysicaldi22erence, hich made all the charm and mystery o2 the automaton, no longer exists= the

robot has absorbed it 2or its on bene2it Being and appearance are melted into a common

substance o2 production and or* The 2irst4order simulacrum ne&er abolished di22erenceIt supposes an alays detectable alteration beteen semblance and reality (a particularly

subtle game ith trompe4l8oeil painting, but art li&es entirely o22 o2 this gap) The second4

order simulacrum simpli2ies the problem by the absorption o2 the appearances, or by theli7uidation o2 the real, hiche&er It establishes in any case a reality, image, echo,

appearance= such is certainly or*, the machine, the system o2 industrial production in its

entirety, in that it is radically opposed to the principle o2 theatrical illusion 'o more

resemblance or lac* o2 resemblance, o2 od, or human being, but an imminent logic o2the operational principle

1"





From then on, men and machines can proli2erate It is e&en their la to do so 4 hich the

automatons ne&er ha&e done, being instead sublime and singular mechanisms en

themsel&es only started their on proli2eration hen they achie&ed the status o2machines, ith the industrial re&olution Freed 2rom ail resemblance, 2reed e&en 2rom

their on double, they expand li*e the system o2 production, o2 hich they are only the

miniaturied e7ui&alent The re&enge o2 the simulacrum that 2eeds the myth o2 thesorcerer8s apprentice doesn8t happen ith the automaton It is, on the other hand, the &ery

la o2 the second type= and 2rom that la proceeds still the hegemony o2 the robot, o2 the

machine, and o2 dead or* o&er li&ing labor This hegemony is necessary 2or the cycle o2 production and reproduction It is ith this re&ersal that e lea&e behind the counter2eit

to enter (re)production :e lea&e natural la and the play o2 its 2orms to enter the realm

o2 the mercantile la o2 &alue and its calculations o2 2orce

The Industrial (imulacrum

It is a ne generation o2 signs and ob9ects hich comes ith the industrial re&olution

Signs ithout the tradition o2 caste, ones that ill ne&er ha&e *non any bindingrestrictions They ill no longer ha&e to be counterfeited , since they are going to be

produced all at once on a gigantic scale The problem o2 their uni7ueness, or their origin,is no longer a matter o2 concern= their origin is techni7ue, and the only sense they possess

is in the dimension o2 the industrial simulacrum

:hich is to say the series, and e&en the possibility o2 to or o2 n identical ob9ects The

relation beteen them is no longer that o2 an original to its counter2eit 4 neither analogynor re2lection 4 but e7ui&alence, indi22erence In a series, ob9ects become unde2ined

simulacra one o2 the other And so, along ith the ob9ects, do the men that produce them

3nly the obliteration o2 the original re2erence allos 2or the generalied la o2

e7ui&alence, that is to say the very possibility of production

The entire analysis o2 production changes according to hether you no longer see in it an

original process, or e&en one that is at the core o2 all the others, but on the contrary a

process o2 absorption o2 all original being and o2 introduction to a series o2 identical beings %ntil no e ha&e considered production and or* as potential, as 2orce, as

historical process, as generic acti&ity= the energetic4economic myth proper to modernity

:e must no as* i2 production does not inter2ere in the order of signs, as a particular phase 4 i2 it is not basically only an episode in the line o2 simulacra6 that precisely hen,

than*s to techni7ue, potentially identical beings are produced in an inde2inite series The

immense energies that are at or* in techni7ue, industry, and the economy should not

hide the 2act that it is basically only a matter o2 attaining to that inde2initereproductibility That is the challenge certainly to the ;natural; order, but 2inally is only a

second4order simulacrum, and rather inade7uate as an imaginary solution to the problem

o2 mastering the orld By comparison to the era o2 the counter2eit (the time o2 thedouble and the mirror, o2 theatre and the games o2 mas* and appearance), the serial and

technical era o2 reproduction is all4in4all a time o2 lesser scope (the era that 2ollos 4 that

o2 models o2 simulation and o2 third4order simulacra 4 is o2 more considerabledimension)

11



has passed entirely into the realm o2 the ;mechanical;), so in the same ay the entire

order o2 production is in the process o2 tumbling into operational simulation

The analyses o2 Ben9amin and c<uhan are situated on these limits o2 reproduction andsimulation, at the point here re2erential reason disappears, and here production is no

longer sure o2 itsel2 In this sense they mar* a decisi&e progress compared to the analyseso2 Geblen and oblot These latter, describing 2or example the signs o2 2ashion, still re2er

to the classical con2iguration6 the signs constitute a distinct material, ha&e a 2inality anduse 2or prestige, status, social di22erentiation They mani2est a strategy contemporaneous

to that o2 pro2it and merchandise ith arx, at a time hen you could still tal* about the

use4&alue o2 a sign or o2 2orce4o24or*, hen purely and simply, one could still tal*about an economy because there as still a Ceason o2 the sign, and a Ceason o2

production

The 'etaphysic of the Code

;<eibni, that mathematical spirit, sa in the mystic elegance o2 the binary system thatcounts only the ero and the one, the &ery image o2 creation The unity o2 the supreme

Being, operating by binary 2unction in nothingness, ould ha&e su22iced to bring out o2 it

all the beings; 4 c<uhan

The great simulacra constructed by man pass 2rom a uni&erse o2 natural las to auni&erse o2 2orce and tensions o2 2orce, today to a uni&erse o2 structures and binary

oppositions A2ter the metaphysic o2 being and appearance, a2ter that o2 energy and

determination, comes that o2 indeterminacy and the code $ybernetic control, generation2rom model, di22erential modulation, 2eed4bac*, 7uestionanser, etc6 such is the ne

operational con2iguration (industrial simulacra are only operational ) ?igitality is its

metaphysical principle (the od o2 <eibni), and ?'A its prophet It is in e22ect in thegenetic code that the ;genesis o2 simulacra; today 2inds its most accomplished 2orm Atthe limit o2 an alays more extensi&e abolition o2 re2erences and 2inalities, o2 the loss o2

resemblance and designation, e 2ind the digital program4sign, hose &alue is purely

tactical, at the intersection o2 the other signals (corpuscles o2 in2ormationtest) and hosestructure is that o2 a macro4molecular code o2 command and control

At this le&el the 7uestion o2 signs, o2 their rational destination, their real or imaginary,

their repression, their de&iation, the illusion they create or that hich they conceal, or

their parallel meanings 4 all o2 that is erased :e ha&e already seen signs o2 the 2irstorder, complex signs and rich in illusion, change, ith the machines, into crude signs,

dull, industrial, repetiti&e, echoless, operational and e22icacious :hat a mutation, e&en

more radical still, ith signals o2 the code, illegible, ith no gloss possible, buried li*e programmatic matrices light4years aay in the depths o2 the ;biological; body 4 blac*

boxes here all the commandments, all the ansers 2ermentE 5nd o2 the theatre o2

representation, the space o2 signs, their con2lict, their silence= only the blac* box o2 thecode, the molecular emitter o2 signals 2rom hich e ha&e been irradiated, crossed by

ansers7uestions li*e signi2ying radiations, tested continuously by our on program

inscribed in the cells Jail cells, electronic cells, party cells, microbiological cells6 alays

1!



the search 2or the smallest indi&isible element, hose organic synthesis ould be made

according to the gi&ens o2 the code But the code itsel2 is but a genetic cell, a generator

here myriads o2 intersections produce all the 7uestions and possible solutions, so thatchoices (by hom>) can be made 'o 2inality in&ol&ed ith these ;7uestions;

(in2ormational and signi2ying impulsions) but the anser, genetically unchangeable or

in2lected by minute and aleatory di22erences Space is no longer e&en linear or one4dimensional6 cellular space, inde2inite generation o2 the same signals, li*e the tics o2 a

prisoner gone cray ith solitude and repetition Such is the genetic code6 an erased

record, unchangeable, o2 hich e are no more than cells42or4reading All aura o2 sign, o2signi2icance itsel2 is resol&ed in this determination= all is resol&ed in the inscription and

decodage

Such is the third4order simulacrum, our on Such is the ;mystic elegance o2 the binary

system, o2 the ero and the one;, 2rom hich all being proceeds Such is the status o2 thesign that is also the end o2 signi2ication6 ?'A or operational simulation All o2 this is

per2ectly ell summed up by Sebeo* (;enetics and Semiotics;, in Gersus)6

)umerous observations confirm the hypothesis that the internal organic !orld descends

in a straight line from the primordial forms of life. The most remarable fact is theomnipresence of the D)5 molecule. The genetic material of all organisms no!n on

earth is in great measure made up of the nucleonic acids D)5 and R)5 that contain in

their information structure, transmitted by reproduction from one generation to anotherand furthermore gifted !ith the capacity of self-reproduction and imitation. 6riefly, the

genetic code is universal, or almost. Its deciphering !as an immense discovery, in the

sense that it sho!ed that +the t!o languages of the great polymers, the language of

nucleonic acid and that of protein, are tightly correlated+ 7Cric, 3899: Clarc2)arcer,389;<. The (oviet mathematician 1iapounov demonstrated in 389= that all living systems

transmit by prescribed canals !ith precision a small *uantity of energy or of mattercontaining a great volume of information, !hich is responsible for the ulterior control ofa great *uantity of energy and matter. In this perspective numerous phenomena,

biological as !ell as cultural 7stocage, feed-bac, canaliation of messages and others<

can be seen as aspects of the treatment of information. In the last analysis informationappears in great part as the repetition of information, or even as another sort of

information, a sort of control that seems to be a universal property of terrestrial life,

independent of form or substance.

0ive years ago I dre! attention to the convergence of genetics and linguistics -autonomous disciplines, but parallel in the larger field of communication science 7of

!hich animal semiotics also is a part<. The terminology of genetics is full of expressions

taen from linguistics and communication theory 7>acobson, 389;<, !hich alsounderlined either the ma$or resemblances or the important differences of structure and of

function bet!een genetic and verbal codes. . . It is obvious today that the genetic code

must be considered the most fundamental of all the semiotic net!ors, and therefore a

prototype of all the other systems of signaling that animals use, man included. 0rom this point of vie!, molecules !hich are systems of *uanta and behave lie stable vehicles of

physical information, systems of animal semiotics and cultural systems, including

1@



language, constitute a continuous chain of stages, !ith al!ays more complex energy

levels, in the frame!or of a universal uni*ue evolution. It is therefore possible to

describe either language or living systems from a unified cybernetic point-of-vie!. 0orthe present, this is only a useful analogy or a prediction. 5 reciprocal rapprochement

bet!een animal communication and linguistics can lead to a complete no!ledge of the

dynamics of semiotics, and such a no!ledge can be revealed, in the last analysis, to benothing less than the very definition of life.

And so the current strategic model is designed that e&eryhere is replacing the great

ideological model hich constituted political economy in its time

ou ill 2ind it under the rigorous sign o2 ;science; in the Chance and )ecessity o2Jac7ues onod The end o2 dialectical e&olution, it is the discontinuous indeterminism o2

the genetic code that no controls li2e 4 the teleological principle Finality no longer

belongs to the term= there is no longer a term, nor a determination Finality is there

be2orehand, inscribed in the code :e see that nothing has changed 4 simply the order o2

ends yields to the play o2 molecules, and the order o2 signi2ieds to the play o2in2initesimal signi2iers, reduced to their aleatory commutation All the transcendant

2inalities reduced to a dashboard 2ull o2 instruments There is still, hoe&er, recourse to anature, to an inscription in ;biological; nature 4 in actuality, a nature distorted by 2antasy

li*e she alays as, metaphysical sanctuary no longer o2 origin and substance, but this

time o2 the code= the code must ha&e an ;ob9ecti&e; basis :hat could be better 2or that purpose than the molecule and genetics> onod is the strict theologian o2 this molecular

transcendance, 5dgar orin the rapt disciple (A?' K AdonaiE) But 2or one as ell as

the other, the 2antasy o2 the code, hich is e7ui&alent to the reality o2 poer, is merged

ith molecular idealism

(?'A)

Thus e 2ind once more in history that delirious illusion o2 uniting the orld under the

aegis o2 a single principle 4 that o2 a homogenous substance ith the Jesuits o2 the

$ounter Ce2ormation= that o2 the genetic code ith the technocrats o2 biological science(but also linguistics as ell), ith <eibni and his binary di&inity as precursor For the

program here aimed at has nothing genetic about it, it is a social and historical program

That hich is hypostatied in biochemistry is the ideal o2 a social order ruled by a sort o2genetic code o2 macromolecular calculation, o2 PPBS (Planned Programming

Budgeting System), irradiating the social body ith its operational circuits The technical

cybernetic 2inds its ;natural philosophy; here, as onod says The 2ascination o2 the

biological, o2 the biomedical dates 2rom the &ery beginnings o2 science It as at or* inSpencerian organicism (sociobiology) on the le&el o2 second4 and third4order structures

(Jacob8s classi2ication in The 1ogic of 1ife, it is acti&e today in modern biochemistry, on

the le&el o2 structures o2 the 2ourth4order)

$oded similarities and dissimilarities6 that is certainly the image o2 cyberniticied social

exchange ou only ha&e to add ;stereospeci2ic complex; in order to re4in9ect

intracellular communication= that orin ill come to trans2igure into molecular 5ros

1-



Practically and historically, this signi2ied the substitution o2 social control by the end (and

by a more or less dialectical providence hich sur&eys the accomplishment o2 this end )

2or social control by anticipation, simulation and programming, and indeterminatemutation directed by the code Instead o2 a process hich is 2inalied according to its

ideal de&elopment, e generalie 2rom a model Instead o2 a right to a prophecy, e ha&e

the right o2 registration There is no really radical di22erence beteen the to, only theschemes o2 control ha&e become 2antastically per2ected From a capitalist4producti&ist

society to a neo4capitalist cybernetic order that aims no at total control This is the

mutation 2or hich the biological theoriation o2 the code prepares the ground There isnothing o2 an accident in this mutation It is the end o2 a history in hich, successi&ely,

od, an, Progress, and #istory itsel2 die to pro2it the code, in hich transcendance dies

to pro2it immanence, the latter corresponding to a much more ad&anced phase in the

&ertiginous manipulation o2 social rapports

In its inde2inite reproduction, the system puts an end to the myth o2 its origin and to all

the re2erential &alues it has itsel2 secreted along the ay Putting an end to its myth o2

beginning, it ends its internal contradictions (no more real or re2erential to be con2rontedith), and it puts an end also to the myth o2 its on end6 the re&olution itsel2 :hat as

pro2iled ith re&olution as the &ictory o2 human and generic re2erence, o2 the original

potential o2 man But i2 capital erases 2rom the map generic man himsel2 (2or the sa*e o2

genetic man>) the olden Age o2 the re&olution as that o2 capital, here the myths o2origin and end still circulated 3nce short4circuited the myths (and the only danger capital

con2ronted historically came to it 2rom this mythical exigency o2 rationality that

accompanied it 2rom the &ery beginning) in an operationality o2 2act and ithoutdiscourse, once capital itsel2 has become its on myth, or rather an interminable

machine, aleatory, something li*e a social genetic code, it no longer lea&es any room 2or

a planned re&ersal= and this is its true &iolence It remains to be seen i2 this operationality

is not itsel2 a myth, i2 ?'A is not also a myth

3nce and 2or all there is posed, in e22ect, the problem o2 science as discourse A good

occasion to pose it here, here this discourse is absolutied ith such candor ;Plato,

#eraclitus, #egel, arx6 these ideological edi2ices, presented as a priori, ere really a posteriori constructions, destined to 9usti2y a preconcei&ed ethico4political theory The

only a priori 2or science is the postulate o2 ob9ecti&ity, that 2orbids itsel2 any part in this

debate; (onod) But this postulate results itsel2 2rom a ne&er innocent decision 2orob9ecti2ication o2 the orld and o2 the ;real; In 2act it is the coherence o2 a certain

discourse, and all scienti2ic mo&ement is nothing but the space o2 this discourse, ne&er

re&ealing itsel2 as such, and the ;ob9ecti&e; simulacrum o2 hich hides the political,

strategic ord A little 2arther on, 2urthermore, onod &ery ell expresses the arbitrarynature o2 this phenomenon6 ;:e might onder i2 all the, in&ariance, conser&ations and

symmetries that constitute the scheme o2 scienti2ic discourse are only 2ictions substituted

2or reality so as to o22er an operational image A logic 2ounded on a purely abstract principle o2 identity possibly con&entional $on&ention, hoe&er, that human reason

seems incapable o2 doing ithout; ou couldn8t say it better6 that science has selected

itsel2 as generating 2ormula, a model discourse, upon the 2aith o2 a con&entional order(not 9ust any, hoe&er= that o2 total reduction) But onod slides rapidly into this

10



dangerous hypothesis o2 a ;con&entional; identity principle It ould be better to base

science, more crudely, upon an ;ob9ecti&e; reality Physics is there to itness that

identity is only a postulate 4 it is !ithin things, since there is ;absolute identity o2 toatoms in the same 7uantitati&e state; :ell then> $on&ention, or ob9ecti&e reality> The

truth is that science is organied, li*e any other discourse, on the basis o2 a con&entional

logic, but it demands 2or its 9usti2ication, li*e any other ideological discourse, a real;ob9ecti&e; re2erence, in a process o2 substance I2 the principle o2 identity is someho

;true,; e&en at the in2initesimal le&el o2 to atoms, then the entire con&entional edi2ice o2

science that deri&es its inspiration 2rom that le&el is also ;true; The hypothesis o2 thegenetic code, ?'A, is also true and unsurpassable So it goes ith metaphysics Science

accounts 2or things pre&iously encircled and 2ormalied so as to be sure to obey it

;3b9ecti&ity; is nothing else than that, and the ethic hich comes to sanction this

ob9ecti&e *nolegde is nothing less than a system o2 de2ense and imposed ignorance,hose goal is to preser&e this &icious circle intact "

;?on ith all hypotheses that ha&e alloed the belie2 in a true orld,; said 'ietsche

The Tactile and the Digital

This regulation on the model o2 the genetic code is not at all limited to laboratory e22ects

or to the exalted &isions o2 theoreticians Banal, e&eryday li2e is in&ested by thesemodels ?igitality is ith us It is that hich haunts all the messages, all the signs o2 our

societies The most concrete 2orm you see it in is that o2 the test, o2 the 7uestionanser,

o2 the stimulusresponse All content is neutralied by a continual procedure o2 directedinterrogation, o2 &erdicts and ultimatums to decode, hich no longer arise this time 2rom

the depths o2 the genetic code but that ha&e the same tactical indeterminacy 4 the cycle o2

sense being in2initely shortened into that o2 7uestionanser, o2 bit or minute 7uantity o2

energyin2ormation coming bac* to its beginning, the cycle only describing the perpetualreactualiation o2 the same models The e7ui&alent o2 the total neutraliation o2 the

signi2ied by the code is the instantaneousness o2 the &erdict o2 2ashion, or o2 anyad&ertising or media message Any place here the o22er sallos up the demand, here

the 7uestion assimilates the anser, or absorbs and regurgitates it in a decodable 2orm, or

in&ents and anticipates it in a predictible 2orm 5&eryhere the same ;scenario,; the

scenario o2 ;trial and error; (guinea pigs in laboratory experiments), the scenario o2 the breadth o2 choice o22ered e&eryhere (;the personality test;) 4 e&eryhere the test

2unctions as a 2undamental 2orm o2 control, by means o2 the in2inite di&isibility o2

practices and responses

:e li&e by the mode o2 referendum precisely because there is no longer any referential 5&ery sign, e&ery message (ob9ects o2 ;2unctional; use as ell as any item o2 2ashion or

tele&ised nes, poll or electoral consultation) is presented to us as 7uestionanser The

entire system o2 communication has passed 2rom that o2 a syntactically complex languagestructure to a binary sign system o2 7uestionanser 4 o2 perpetual test 'o tests and

re2erenda are, e *no, per2ect 2orms o2 simulation6 the anser is called 2orth by the

7uestion, it is designated in ad&ance The referendum is al!ays an ultimatum6 theunilateral nature o2 the 7uestion, that is no longer exactly an interrogation, but the

1/






in e22ect, that the recei&er construe and decode by obser&ing the same procedure hereby

the or* as assembled The reading o2 the message is then only a perpetual

examination o2 the code

5&ery image, e&ery media message, but also any 2unctional en&ironmental ob9ect, is a test

4 that is to say, in the 2ull rigor o2 the term, liberating response mechanisms according tostereotypes and analytic models Today, the ob9ect is no longer ;2unctional; in the

traditional meaning o2 the ord= it no longer ser&es you, it tests you It has nothing to doith the ob9ect o2 yesteryear, no more than does media nes ith a ;reality; o2 2acts

Both ob9ects and in2ormation result already 2rom a selection, a montage, 2rom a point4o24

&ie They ha&e already tested ;reality,; and ha&e as*ed only 7uestions that ;ansered bac*; to them They ha&e bro*en don reality into simple elements that they ha&e

reassembled into scenarios o2 regulated oppositions, exactly in the same ay that the

photographer imposes his contrasts, lights, angles on his sub9ect (any photographer illtell you6 you can do anything, all you ha&e to do is approach the original 2rom the right

angle, at that right moment or mood that ill render it the correct ans!er to the

instantaneous test o2 the instrument and its code) It is exactly li*e the test or there2erendum hen they translate a con2lict or problem into a game o2 7uestionanser

And reality, thus tested, tests you according to the same grill= you decode it according to

the same code, inscribed ithin each message and ob9ect li*e a miniaturied genetic

code

All is presented today in a spread4out series, or as part o2 a line o2 products, and this 2act

alone tests you already, because you are obliged to ma*e decisions This approximates

our general attitude toard the orld around us to that o2 a reading , and to a selecti&e

deciphering :e li&e less li*e users than readers and selectors, reading cells Butne&ertheless6 by the same to*en you also are constantly selected and tested by the

medium itsel2 Just li*e cutting out a sample 2or the ends o2 the sur&ey, the media 2rameand excise their message bundles, hich are in 2act bundles o2 selected 7uestions,samples o2 their audience By a circular operation o2 experimental modi2ication, o2

incessant inter2erence, li*e a ner&ous input, tactile and retractile, that explores an ob9ect

by means o2 brie2 percepti&e se7uences, until it has been localied and controlled :hatthe media thereby localie and control are no real and autonomous groups, but samples,

samples modelled socially and mentally by a barrage o2 messages ;Public opinion; is

e&idently the prettiest o2 these samples 4 not an unreal political substance, but one that ishyperreal 4 a 2antastic hyperreality that li&es only o22 o2 montage and test4manipulation

The eruption o2 the binary scheme 7uestionanser is o2 an incalculable importance It

renders inarticulate e&ery discourse It short4circuits all that as, in a golden age come

again, the dialectic o2 signi2ier and signi2ied, o2 a representing and a represented It is theend o2 ob9ects hose meaning ould be 2unction, and o2 opinions that ;representati&e8

representati&es ould be able to &ote 2or It is the end o2 the real interrogation to hich it

as possible to anser (the end especially to unanserable 7uestions) This process has

been entirely o&erthron The contradictory process o2 true and 2alse, o2 real and theimaginary, is abolished in this hyperreal logic o2 montage ichel Tort, in his boo*

Intelligence Buotient , analyes this 7uite ell6 ;:hat is going to determine the anser to

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the 7uestion is not the 7uestion as such in the 2orm in hich it as posed, it is also the

idea that the interrogated sub9ect 2orms about the most appropriate tactic to adopt in

2unction o2 the concept he has 2ormed about the expectations o2 the interrogator; And2urther6 ;The arti2act is something else entirely than a controlled trans2ormation o2 the

ob9ect 2or the ends o2 *noledge6 it is a rude inter2erence ith reality, at the end o2 hich

it is impossible to say hat in reality can be ob9ecti&ely *non and hat is the result o2technical inter&ention (medium) The IL is an arti2act; 'o more true or 2alse, because

no more distinguishable hiatus beteen 7uestion and response In the light o2 the tests,

intelligence, li*e opinion 4 and more generally the entire process o2 meaning 4 is reducedto the ;ability to produce contrasting reactions to a groing series o2 ade7uate stimuli;

This entire analysis sends us bac* to c<uhan8s 2ormula ;The edium is the essage;

It is in e22ect the medium 4 the &ery style o2 montage, o2 decoupage, o2 interpellation,

solicitation, summation, by the medium 4 hich controls the process o2 meaning Andyou understand hy c<uhan sa in the era o2 the great electronic media an era o2

tactile communication :e are closer here in e22ect to the tactile than to the &isual

uni&erse, here the distancing is greater and re2lection is alays possible At the sametime as touch loses its sensorial, sensual &alue 2or us (;touching is an interaction o2 the

senses rather than a simple contact o2 an ob9ect ith the s*in;), it is possible that it

returns as the strategy o2 a uni&erse o2 communication 4 but as the 2ield o2 tactile and

tactical simulation, here the message becomes ;massage,; tentacular solicitation, test5&eryhere you8re tested, palpated, the method is ;tactical,; the sphere o2 communication

is ;tactile; :ithout e&en spea*ing o2 the ideology o2 ;contact,; that is being pushed in all

its 2orms as a substitute 2or social rapport, there is an entire social con2iguration thatorbits around the test (the 7uestionanser cell) as around the commandments o2 the

molecular code

The political sphere entirely loses its speci2icity hen it enters into the game o2 the mediaand public opinion polls, that is to say into the sphere o2 the integrated circuit o27uestionanser The electoral sphere is in any case the 2irst great institution here social

exchange is reduced to obtaining an anser It is due to this sign4simpli2ication that it is

the 2irst one to become uni&ersal %ni&ersal su22rage is the 2irst o2 the mass4media Allthrough the +/th and "th centuries political and economic practice merge increasingly

into the same type o2 discourse Propaganda and ad&ertising 2use in the same mar*eting

and merchandising o2 ob9ects and ideologies This con&ergence o2 language beteen theeconomic and the political is 2urthermore hat mar*s a society such as ours, here

;political economy; is 2ully realied It is also by the same to*en its end, since the to

spheres are abolished in an entirely separate reality, or hyperreality, hich is that o2 the

media There, too, there is an ele&ation o2 each term to a greater poer, that o2 the third4order simulacra

;That many regret the 8corruption8 o2 politics by the media, deploring that TG and public

opinion polls ha&e replaced so 7uic*ly the 2ormation o2 opinion, shos only that they

understand nothing about politics;

D"



:hat is characteristic o2 this phase o2 political hyperrealism is the necessary con9unction

beteen the bipartite system and the entry into the play o2 the polls as mirror o2 this

alternating e7ui&alence o2 the political game

The polls are located in a dimension beyond all social production They re2er only to a

simulacrum o2 public opinion A mirror o2 opinion analogous in its ay to that o2 theross 'ational Product6 imaginary mirror o2 the producti&e 2orces, ithout regard to

their social ends or lac* thereo2 :hat is essential is only that ;it; reproduces itsel2 Thesame as 2or public opinion6 hat is essential is that it shado itsel2 incessantly in its on

image Therein lies the secret o2 mass representation It is no longer necessary that

anyone produce an opinion, all that is needed is that all reproduce public opinion, in thesense that all opinions get caught up in this *ind o2 general e7ui&alent, and once more

proceed 2rom it (reproduce it, hate&er they ma*e o2 it, on the le&el o2 indi&idual choice)

For opinions as 2or material goods6 production is dead, long li&e reproduction

I2 c<uhan8s 2ormula ma*es any sense it is certainly in this connection D Public opinion

is par excellence at the same time medium and message And the polls that in2orm it arethe incessant imposition o2 the medium as message In this sense they are o2 the same

nature as TG and the electronic media, hich e ha&e seen are also only a perpetualgame o2 7uestion anser, an instrument o2 perpetual polling

The polls manipulate that !hich cannot be decided ?o they really a22ect the &ote> True,

2alse> ?o they gi&e an exact picture o2 reality, or simple tendencies, or the re2raction o2

this reality in a hyperspace o2 simulation hose cur&e e&en is un*non> True, 2alse,undecidable Their most sophisticated analyses lea&e room alays 2or the re&ersibility o2

the hypotheses Statistics is only casuistry This undecidable 7uality is proper to any

process o2 simulation (see abo&e, the crisis o2 indecision) The internal logic o2 these

procedures (statistics, probability, operational cybernetics) is certainly rigorous and;scienti2ic;= someho though it does not stic*, it is a 2abulous 2iction hose index o2

re2raction in any reality (true or 2alse) is nil This is e&en hat gi&es these models their2orce2ulness But also it is this hich only lea&es them, as truth, the paranoid pro9ection

tests o2 a case, or o2 a group hich dreams o2 a miraculous correspondance o2 the real to

their models, and there2ore o2 an absolute manipulation

:hat is true o2 the statistics scenario is also true o2 the regulated partition o2 the politicalsphere6 the alternation o2 the 2orces in poer, ma9orityminority, substituti&e, etc 3n this

limit o2 pure representation, ;that; no longer represents anything Politics die o2 the too4

ell4regulated game o2 distincti&e oppositions The political sphere (and that o2 poer in

general) becomes empty This is someho the payment 2or the accomplishing o2 the political class8 desire6 that o2 a per2ect manipulation o2 social representation

Surreptitiously and silently, all social substance has le2t this machine in the &ery moment

o2 its per2ect reproduction

The same thing holds true 2or the polls The only ones ho belie&e in them 2inally are the

members o2 the political class, 9ust as the only ones ho really belie&e in ad&ertising and

mar*et studies are the mar*eteers and ad&ertisers This is not because they are

D1






particularly stupid (though that e can8t exclude either) but because the polls are

homogenous ith the current 2unctioning o2 politics They ta*e on a ;real; tactical &alue,

they come into play as a 2actor in the regulation o2 the political class according to its onrules o2 the game It there2ore has reason to belie&e in them, and it belie&es But ho else

does, really> It is the political class8 burles7ue spectacle, hyper4representati&e o2 nothing

at all, that people taste by ay o2 the polls and media There is a 9ubilation proper tospectacular nullity, and the last 2orm it ta*es is that o2 statistical contemplation This is

accompanied alays, e *no, by a pro2ound disappointment 4 the *ind o2 disillusion

that the polls pro&o*e in absorbing so utterly the public8s &oice, in short4circuiting all process o2 expression The 2ascination they exercise is in accordance ith this

neutraliation by emptiness, ith this trance they create by anticipation o2 the image o&er

all possible reality

The problem o2 the polls is not at all that o2 their ob9ecti&e in2luence Just as 2or propaganda or publicity, their in2luence is negated by indi&idual or collecti&e inertia or

resistance The problem is the operational simulation that they institute o&er the entire

spectrum o2 social practices6 that o2 the progressi&e leucemiaation o2 all socialsubstance, that is the substitution 2or blood o2 the hite lymph o2 media

The 7uestionanser cycle 2inds extension in all domains ou sloly 2ind that the entire

realm o2 in7uiries, polls, and statistics needs to be loo*ed at again in relation to this

radical suspicion hich 2alls upon their methods But the sel2same suspicion 2alls onethnology %nless you admit that the nati&es are per2ect naturals, incapable o2 simulation,

the problem is the same as here6 the impossibility o2 obtaining 2or a directed 7uestion any

anser other than simulated (other than reproducing the 7uestion) It isn8t e&en certain

that you can interrogate plants, animals, nor e&en inert matter in the exact sciences ithany chance o2 ;ob9ecti&e; response As to the response o2 the polled to the poll4ta*ers, the

nati&es to the ethnologist, the analyed to the analyst, you can be sure that the circularityis total6 the ones 7uestioned alays pretend to be as the 7uestion imagines and solicitsthem to be 5&en psychoanalytic trans2erence and counter4trans2erence 2all today under

the say o2 this stimulated, simulated4anticipated response, hich is none other than the

&ery model o2 the sel242ul2illing prophecy ! :e come then upon a strange paradox6 theord o2 the polled, the analyed, the nati&es, is irremediably short4circuited and lost, and

it is on the basis o2 this 2oreclosure that these respecti&e disciplines 4 ethnology,

psychoanalysis, sociology 4 are going to be able to experience such mar&elous grothBut they become pu22ed4up on mere ind, 2or it is in that respect that the circular

response o2 the polled, the analyed, the nati&es is all the same a challenge and a

triumphant re&enge It is that they place the spotlight bac* on the 7uestion itsel2, isolate it

in o22ering it the mirror o2 the anser it as aaiting, and sho it helpless to e&er 7uitthe &icious circle hich in 2act is that o2 poer Just as in the electoral system, in hich

the representati&es no longer represent anything because they control so ell the

responses o2 the electoral body But e&erything has, someho, eluded the ruling class8grasp This is hy the dominated anser o2 the nati&es is all the same a real response, a

desperate &engeance6 that o2 letting poer bury poer

DD






The ;ad&anced democratic; systems are stabilied on the 2ormula o2 bipartite alternation

The monopoly in 2act remains that o2 a homogenous political class, 2rom le2t to right, but

it must not be exercised as such The one4party totalitarian regime is an unstable 2orm 4 itde2uses the political scene, it no longer assures the 2eed4bac* o2 public opinion, the

minimal 2lux in the integrated circuit hich constitutes the transistoried political

machine Alternation, on the other hand, is the end o2 the end o2 representation, sosolicitation is maximal, by dint o2 simple 2ormal constraint, hen you are approaching

most nearly a per2ect competiti&e e7uation beteen the to parties This is logical

?emocracy realies the la o2 e7ui&alence in the political order This la isaccomplished in the bac*4and42orth mo&ement o2 the to terms hich reacti&ates their

e7ui&alence but allos, by the minute di22erence, a public consensus to be 2ormed and the

cycle o2 representation to be dosed 3perational theatre, here the only play staged

anymore is the 2ulginous re2lection o2 political Ceason The ;2ree choice o2 indi&iduals,hich is the credo o2 democracy, leads in 2act precisely to the opposite6 the &ote becomes

2unctionally obligatory6 i2 it is not legally, it is by statistical constraint, the structure o2

alternation, rein2orced by the polls @ The &ote becomes 2unctionally aleatory6 hen

democracy attains an ad&anced 2ormal stage, it distributes itsel2 around e7ual 7uotients(!!) The &ote comes to resemble a Bronian mo&ement o2 particles or the calculation

o2 probabilities It is as i2 e&eryone &oted by chance, or mon*eys &oted

At this point it ma*es no di22erence at all hat the parties in poer are expressinghistorically and socially It is necessary e&en that they represent nothing= the 2ascination

o2 the game, the polls, the 2ormal and statistical compulsion o2 the game is all the greater

;$lassical; uni&ersal su22rage already implies a certain neutraliation o2 the political

2ield, i2 only by the consensus on the rules o2 the game But you can still distinguishtherein the representati&es 2rom the represented, an the basis o2 a real social antagonism

o2 opinion It is the neutraliation o2 this contradictory re2erent, under the sign o2 a publicopinion 2rom no on e7ual unto itsel2, mediated and homogenied by anticipation (the polls) that ill ma*e alternation possible ;at the top;6 simulation o2 opposition beteen

to parties, absorption o2 their respecti&e ob9ecti&es, re&ersibility o2 the entire discourse

one into the other It is, beyond the representing and the represented, the pure 2orm o2representation 4 9ust as simulation characteries, beyond the signi2ier and the signi2ied,

the pure 2orm o2 the political economy o2 the sign 4 exactly as the 2loating o2 currency

and its countable relations characteries, beyond use and exchange &alue, beyond allsubstance o2 production, the pure 2orm o2 &alue

It might appear that the historical mo&ement o2 capital carries it 2rom one open

competition toards oligopoly, then toards monopoly 4 that the democratic mo&ement

goes 2rom multiple parties toard bipartism, then toard the single party 'othing o2 thesort6 oligopoly, or the current duopoly results 2rom a tactical doubling of monopoly In all

domains duopoly is the 2inal stage o2 monopoly It is not the public ill (state

inter&ention, anti4trust las, etc) hich brea*s up the monopoly o2 the mar*et 4 it is the

2act that any unitary system, i2 it ishes to sur&i&e, must ac7uire a binary regulationThis changes nothing as 2ar as monopoly is concerned 3n the contrary, poer is absolute

only i2 it is capable o2 di22raction into &arious e7ui&alents, i2 it *nos ho to ta*e o22 so

D!






2or the other, and their tin altitude presents no longer any &alue o2 transcendence They

signi2y only that the strategy o2 models and commutations ins out in the &ery heart o2

the system itsel2 4 and 'e or* is really the heart o2 it4o&er the traditional strategy o2competition The buildings o2 Coc*e2eller $enter still direct their gae one at the other

into their glass or steel 2acades, in the city8s in2inite specularity The toers, on the other

hand, are blind, and no longer ha&e a 2acade All re2erential o2 habitat, o2 the 2acade as2ace, o2 interior and exterior, that you still 2ind in the $hase anhattan or in the boldest

mirror4buildings o2 the @8s, is erased At the same time as the rhetoric o2 &erticality, the

rhetoric o2 the mirror has disappeared There remains only a series closed on the numberto, 9ust as i2 architecture, in the image o2 the system, proceeded only 2rom an

unchangeable genetic code, a de2initi&e model

The "yperrealism of (imulation

All o2 this de2ines a digital space, a magnetic 2ield 2or the code, ith polariations,

di22ractions, gra&itations o2 the models and alays, alays, the 2lux o2 the smallest

dis9uncti&e unities (the 7uestionanser cell, that is li*e the cybernetic atom o2 meaning):e should compare this *ind o2 control ith the traditional repressi&e space, the police4

space that still corresponded to a signifying &iolence Space o2 reactionary conditioningthat too* its inspiration 2rom the total Pa&lo&ian disposition o2 programmed, repetiti&e

aggressions, and hich you 2ind again multiplied in scale in ;hard sell; ad&ertising and in

the political propaganda o2 the +/18s Ca industrial &iolence, aiming to induce beha&iors o2 terror and o2 animal obeisance All o2 that no longer has any meaning The

totalitarian, bureaucratic concentration is a scheme hich dates 2rom the era o2 the

mercantile la o2 &alue The system o2 e7ui&alences imposes in e22ect the 2orm o2 a

general e7ui&alent, and there2ore the centraliation o2 a global process Archaicrationality compared to that o2 simulation= there is no longer a single general e7ui&alent,

but a di22raction o2 models that plays a regulatory role 'o longer the 2orm o2 the generale7ui&alent, but that o2 distincti&e opposition From in9unction you pass to dis9unction bythe code, 2rom the ultimatum you pass to the solicitation, 2rom the re7uired passi&ity to

models constructed all at once on the basis o2 the ;acti&e response; o2 the sub9ect, on its

implication, its ;ludic; participation, etc, toards a total en&ironmental model made outo2 incessant spontaneous responses o2 9oyous 2eed4bac* and irradiating contact This is

the ;concretiation o2 the general atmosphere,; according to 'icolas SchM22er, the great

2esti&al o2 Participation, made out o2 myriads o2 stimuli, miniaturied tests, in2initelydi&isible 7uestionN ansers, all magnetied by a 2e great models in the luminous 2ield o2

the code

#ere comes the time o2 the great $ulture o2 tactile communication, under the sign o2 the

technico4luminous cinematic space o2 total spatio4dynamic theatre

This is a completely imaginary contact4orld o2 sensorial mimetics and tactilemysticism= it is essentially an entire ecology that is gra2ted on this uni&erse o2 operational

simulation, multistimulation and multiresponse :e naturalie this incessant test o2

success2ul adaptation in assimilating it into animal mimesis ;The adaptation o2 animalsto the colors and 2orms o2 their milieu is a &alid phenomenon 2or man; ('icolas

D-



SchM22er), and the same 2or Indians, ith their ;innate sense o2 ecology;E Tropisms,

mimetics, empathy6 the complete ecological 5&angel o2 open systems, ith positi&e or

negati&e 2eedbac*, is going to rush into this breech, ith an ideology o2 regulation byin2ormation hich is only the a&atar, according to a more 2lexible rationality, o2 Pa&lo&8s

re2lex So it is that e graduate 2rom electro4shoc* therapy to bodily expression as a

means o2 conditioning mental health 5&eryhere the disposition o2 2orce and 2orcingyield to dispositions o2 ambiance, ith operationaliation o2 the notions o2 need,

perception, desire, etc eneralied ecology, mysti7ue o2 the ;niche; and o2 the context,

milieu4simulation right up to ;$enters o2 5sthetic and $ultural Ce4Animation; 2oreseenin the GIIth Plan (hy not>) and $enter o2 Sexual <eisure, constructed in the 2orm o2 a

breast, that ill o22er a ;superior euphoria due to a pulsating ambiance The or*ers

2rom all classes ill be able to penetrate into these stimulating centers; Spatiodynamic

2ascination, li*e this ;total theatre; established ;according to a hyperbolic circulardisposition turning around a cylindrical cone;6 no more scene, cut4o22 point, or ;regard;6

end o2 the spectacle as ell as o2 the spectacular, toards the total en&ironmental, 2used

together, tactile, esthesia and no longer esthetics, etc :e can thin* o2 the total theatre o2

Artaud only ith blac* humor, his Theatre o2 $ruelty, o2 hich this spatiodynamicsimulaton is only an ab9ect caricature #ere cruelty is replaced by ;minimal and maximal

stimulus thresholds,; by the in&ention o2 ;percepti&e codes calculated on the basis o2saturation thresholds; 5&en the good old ;catharsis; o2 the classical theatre o2 the

passions has become today homeopathy by simulation So goes creati&ity

This also means the collapse o2 reality into hyperrealism, in the minute duplication o2 the

real, pre2erably on the basis o2 another reproducti&e medium 4 ad&ertising, photo, etcFrom medium to medium the real is &olatilied= it becomes an allegory o2 death, but it is

rein2orced by its &ery destruction= it becomes the real 2or the real, 2etish o2 the lost ob9ect

4 no longer ob9ect o2 representation, but ecstasy o2 denegation and o2 its on ritual

extermination6 the hyperreal

Cealism had already begun this tendency The rhetoric o2 the real already meant that the

status o2 the latter had been gra&ely menaced (the golden age is that o2 language8s

innocence, here it doesn8t ha&e to add an ;e22ect o2 reality; to hat is said) Surrealismis still solidary ith the realism it contests, but augments its intensity by setting it o22

against the imaginary The hyperreal represents a much more ad&anced phase, in the

sense that e&en this contradiction beteen the real and the imaginary is e22aced Theunreal is no longer that o2 dream or o2 2antasy, o2 a beyond or a ithin, it is that o2 a

hallucinatory resemblance of the real !ith itself To exist 2rom the crisis o2

representation, you ha&e to loc* the real up in pure repetition Be2ore emerging in pop art

and pictorial neo4realism, this tendency is at or* already in the ne no&el The pro9ectis already there to empty out the real, extirpate all psychology, all sub9ecti&ity, to mo&e

the real bac* to pure ob9ecti&ity In 2act this ob9ecti&ity is only that o2 the pure loo* 4

ob9ecti&ity at last liberated 2rom the ob9ect, that is nothing more than the blind relaystation o2 the loo* hich seeps o&er it $ircular seduction here you can detect easily

the unconscious desire o2 no longer being &isible at all

D0



This is certainly the impression that the ne no&el lea&es6 this rage 2or eliding sense in a

minute and blind reality Syntax and semantics ha&e disappeared 4 there is no longer

apparition, but instead subpoena o2 the ob9ect, se&ere interrogation o2 its scattered2ragments 4 neither metaphor nor metonymy6 successi&e immanence under the policing

structure o2 the loo* This ;ob9ecti&e; minuteness arouses a &ertigo o2 reality, a &ertigo o2

death on the limits o2 representation42or4the4sa*e4o24representation 5nd o2 the oldillusions o2 relie2, perspecti&e and depth (spatial and psychological) bound to the

perception o2 the ob9ect6 it is the entire optic, the &ie become operational on the sur2ace

o2 things, it is the loo* become molecular code o2 the ob9ect

Se&eral modalities o2 this &ertigo o2 realistic simulation are possible6

I The deconstruction o2 the real into details 4 closed paradigmatic declension o2 the

ob9ect 4 2lattening, linearity and seriality o2 the partial ob9ects

II The endlessly re2lected &ision6 all the games o2 duplication and reduplication o2 the

ob9ect in detail This multiplication is presented as a deepening, that is 2or a critialmetalanguage, and it as doubtless true in a re2lexi&e con2iguration o2 the sign, in a

dialectic o2 the mirror From no on, though, this inde2inite re2raction is only another

type o2 seriality The real is no longer re2lected, instead it 2eeds o22 itsel2 till the point o2

emaciation

III The properly serial 2orm (Andy :arhol) #ere not only the syntagmatic dimension is

abolished, but the paradigmatic as ell Since there no longer is any 2ormal 2lection or

e&en internal re2lection, but contiguity o2 the same 4 2lection and re2lection ero <i*ethose to tin sisters in a dirty pictures the charnel reality o2 their bodies is erased by the

resemblance #o to in&est your energies in one, hen her beauty is immediately

duplicated by the other> The regard can go only 2rom one to the other, all &ision is loc*edinto this coming4and4going Subtle ay o2 murdering the original, but also singularseduction, here all attention to the ob9ect is intercepted by its in2inite di22raction into

itsel2 (in&erted scenario o2 the Platonic myth o2 the reunion o2 the separated hal&es o2 the

symbol 4 here the sign multiplies li*e protooans) This seduction is possibly that o2death, in the sense that 2or sexual beings, death is possibly not nothingness, but simply

the mode o2 reproduction anterior to the sexual This generation by model along an

endless chain that in e22ect recalls the protooans and is opposed to a sexual mode that etend, inaccurately, to con2use ith li2e itsel2

IG But this pure mechaniation is doubtless only a paradoxical limit6 the true generating

2ormula, that hich englobes all the others, and hich is someho the stabilied 2orm o2

the code, is that o2 binarity, o2 digitality 'ot pure repetition, but the minimal separation,the least amount o2 in2lection beteen the to terms, that is to say the ;&ery smallest

common paradigm; that the 2iction o2 sense could possibly support $ombination o2

di22erentiation internal to the pictorial ob9ect and to the ob9ect o2 consummation, thissimulation retreats in contemporary art to be no more than the minute di22erence that still

separates the hyperreal 2rom hyperpainting The latter pretends to extend right up to a

sacri2icial e22acement be2ore the real, but you *no ho all these prestigious elements in

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painting resuscitate in this minute di22erence6 all o2 painting ta*es re2uge in the border

that separates the painted sur2ace and the all And in the signature6 metaphysical sign o2

painting and o2 the hole metaphysic o2 representation, at the limit here it ta*es itsel22or model (the ;pure loo*;) and turns bac* upon itsel2 in the compulsi&e repetition o2 the

code

The &ery de2inition o2 the real becomes6 that of !hich it is possible to give an e*uivalent

reproduction This is contemporaneous ith a science that postulates that a process can be per2ectly reproduced in a set o2 gi&en conditions, and also ith the industrial

rationality that postulates a uni&ersal system o2 e7ui&alency (classical representation is

not e7ui&alence, it is transcription, interpretation, commentary) At the limit o2 this process o2 reproductibility, the real is not only hat can be reproduced, but that !hich is

al!ays already reproduced The hyperreal

And so6 end o2 the real, and end o2 art, by total absorption one into the other> 'o6

hyperrealism is the limit o2 art, and o2 the real, by respecti&e exchange, on the le&el o2 the

simulacrum, o2 the pri&ileges and the pre9udices hich are their basis The hyperrealtranscends representation (c2 JF <yotard, 1%5rt ivant , number on hyperrealism) only

because it is entirely in simulation The tourni7uet o2 representation tightens madly, buto2 an implosi&e madness, that, 2ar 2rom eccentric (marginal) inclines toards the center

to its on in2inite repetition Analogous to the distancing characteristic o2 the dream, that

ma*es us say that e are only dreaming= but this is only the game o2 censure and o2 perpetuation o2 the dream #yperrealism is made an integral part o2 a coded reality that it

perpetuates, and 2or hich it changes nothing

In 2act, e should turn our de2inition o2 hyperrealism inside out It is reality itself today

that is hyperrealist Surrealism8s secret already as that the most banal reality could

become surreal, but only in certain pri&ileged moments that ne&ertheless are stillconnected ith art and the imaginary Today it is 7uotidian reality in its entirety 4

political, social, historical and economic 4 that 2rom no on incorporates the simulatorydimension o2 hyperrealism :e li&e e&eryhere already in an ;esthetic; hallucination o2

reality The old slogan ;truth is stranger than 2iction,; that still corresponded to the

surrealist phase o2 this estheticiation o2 li2e, is obsolete There is no more 2iction that li2e

could possibly con2ront, e&en &ictoriously 4 it is reality itsel2 that disappears utterly in thegame o2 reality 4 radical disenchantment, the cool and cybernetic phase 2olloing the hot

stage o2 2antasy

It is thus that 2or guilt, anguish and death there can be substituted the total 9oy o2 the signs

o2 guilt, despair, &iolence and death It is the &ery euphoria o2 simulation, that sees itsel2as the abolition o2 cause and e22ect, the beginning and the end, 2or all o2 hich it

substitutes reduplication In this manner all closed systems protect themsel&es at the same

time 2rom the re2erential 4 as ell as 2rom all metalanguage that the system 2orestalls in playing at its on metalanguage= that is to say in duplicating itsel2 in its on criti7ue o2

itsel2 In simulation, the metalinguistic illusion duplicates and completes the re2erential

illusion (pathetic hallucination o2 the sign and pathetic hallucination o2 the real)

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;It8s a circus,; ;It8s theatre,; ;It8s a mo&ie,; old adages, old naturalistic denunciation

These sayings are no obsolete The problem no is that o2 the satelliation of the real ,

the putting into orbit o2 an inde2inable reality ithout common measure to the 2antasiesthat once used to ornament it This satelliation e 2ind 2urther naturalied in the to4

rooms4*itchen shoer that they ha&e launched into orbit 4 to the poers o2 space, you

could say 4 ith the last lunar module The banality o2 the earthly habitat li2ted to theran* o2 cosmic &alue, o2 absolute decor 4 hypostatied in space 4 this is the end o2

metaphysics, the era o2 hyperreality that begins 0 But the spatial transcendence o2 the

banality o2 the to4rooms, li*e its cool and mechanical 2iguration o2 hyperrealism, / saysonly one thing6 that this module, such as it is, participates in a hyperspace o2

representation 4 here each is already technically in possession o2 the instantaneous

reproduction o2 his on li2e, here the pilots o2 the Tupole& that crashed at Bourget

could see themsel&es die li&e on their on camera This is nothing else that the short4circuit o2 the response by the 7uestion in the test, instantaneous process o2 re4conduction

hereby reality is immediately contaminated by its simulacrum

There used to be, be2ore, a speci2ic class o2 allegorical and slightly diabolical ob9ects6mirrors, images, or*s o2 art (concepts>) 4 simulacra, but transparent and mani2est (you

didn8t con2use the counter2eit ith the original), that had their characteristic style and

sa&oir42aire And pleasure consisted then rather in disco&ering the ;natural; in hat as

arti2icial and counter2eit Today, hen the real and the imaginary are con2used in thesame operational totality, the esthetic 2ascination is e&eryhere It is a subliminal

perception (a sort o2 sixth sense) o2 deception, montage, scenaria 4 o2 the o&erexposed

reality in the light o2 the models 4 no longer a production space, but a reading strip, stripo2 coding and decoding, magnetied by the signs 4 esthetic reality 4 no longer by the

premeditation and the distance o2 art, but by its ele&ation to the second le&el, to the

second poer, by the anticipation and the immanence o2 the code A *ind o2

nonintentional parody ho&ers o&er e&erything, o2 technical simulation, o2 inde2inable2ame to hich is attached an esthetic pleasure, that &ery one o2 reading and o2 the rules o2

the game Tra&elling o2 signs, the media, o2 2ashion and the models, o2 the blind and

brilliant ambiance o2 the simulacra

A long time ago art pre2igured this turning hich is that today o2 daily li2e Gery 7uic*ly

the or* turns bac* on itsel2 as the manipulation o2 the signs o2 art6 o&er4signi2ication o2

art, ;academism o2 the signi2ier,; as <e&i4Strauss ould say, ho interprets it really asthe 2orm4sign I2 is then that art enters into its inde2inite reproduction6 all that

reduplicates itsel2, e&en i2 it be the e&eryday and banal reality, 2alls by the to*en under

the sign o2 art, and becomes esthetic It8s the same thing 2or production, hich you could

say is entering today this esthetic reduplication, this phase hen, expelling all contentand 2inality, it becomes someho abstract and non42igurati&e It expresses then the pure

2orm o2 production, it ta*es upon itsel2, as art, the &alue o2 a 2inality ithout purpose Art

and industry can then exchange their signs Art can become a reproducing machine(Andy :arhol), ithout ceasing to be art, since the machine is only a sign And

production can lose all social 2inality so as to be &eri2ied and exalted 2inally in the

prestigious, hyperbolic signs that are the great industrial combines, the +D4mile4hightoers or the number mysteries o2 the 'P

!+







And so art is e&eryhere, since arti2ice is at the &ery heart o2 reality And so art is dead,

not only because its critical transcendence is gone, but because reality itsel2, entirely

impregnated by an aesthetic hich is inseparable 2rom its on structure, has beencon2used ith its on image Ceality no longer has the time to ta*e on the appearance o2

reality It no longer e&en surpasses 2iction6 it captures e&ery dream e&en be2ore it ta*es on

the appearance o2 a dream Schiophrenic &ertigo o2 these serial signs, 2or hich nocounter2eit, no sublimation is possible, immanent in their repetition 4 ho could say hat

the reality is that these signs simulate> They no longer e&en repress anything (hich is

hy, i2 you ill, simulation pushes us close to the sphere o2 psychosis) 5&en the primary processes are abolished in them The cool uni&erse o2 digitality has absorbed the orld o2

metaphor and metonymy The principle o2 simulation ins out o&er the reality principle

9ust as o&er the principle o2 pleasure

Translated by &hilip 6eitchman

Notes

+) $ounter2eit and reproduction imply alays an anguish, a dis7uieting 2oreignness6 the

uneasiness be2ore the photograph, considered li*e a itches tric*4and more generally

be2ore any technical apparatus, hich is alays an apparatus o2 reproduction, is related by Ben9amin to the uneasiness be2ore the mirror4image There is already sorcery at or*

in the mirror But ho much more so hen this image can be detached 2rom the mirror

and be transported, stoc*ed, reproduced at ill (c2 The (tudent of &rague, here the

de&il detaches the image o2 the student 2rom the mirror and harrasses him to death by theintermediary o2 this image) All reproduction implies there2ore a *ind o2 blac* magic,

2rom the 2act o2 being seduced by ones on image in the ater, li*e 'arcissus, to being

haunted by the double and, ho *nos, to the mortal turning bac* o2 this &ast technicalapparatus secreted today by man as his on image (the narcissistic mirage o2 techni7ue,

c<uhan) and that returns to him, cancelled and distorted 4 endless reproduction o2

himsel2 and his poer to the limits o2 the orld Ceproduction is diabolical in its &eryessence= it ma*es something 2undamental &acillate This has hardly changed 2or us6

simulation (that e describe here as the operation o2 the code) is still and alays the

place o2 a gigantic enterprise o2 manipulation, o2 control and o2 death, 9ust li*e the

imitati&e ob9ect (primiti&e statuette, image o2 photo) alays had as ob9ecti&e an operationo2 blac* image

") There is 2urthermore in onod8s boo* a 2lagrant contradiction, hich re2lects the

ambiguity o2 all current science #is discourse concerns the code, that is the third4ordersimulacra, but it does so still according to ;scienti2ic; schemes o2 the second4order 4

ob9ecti&eness, ;scienti2ic; ethic o2 *noledge, science8s principle o2 truth and

transcendence All things incompatible ith the indeterminable models o2 the third4order

1) ;It8s the 2eeble 8de2inition8 o2 TG hich condemns its spectator to rearranging the 2e points retained into a *ind o2 abstract !or #e participates suddenly in the creation o2 a

reality that as only 9ust presented to him in dots6 the tele&ision atcher is in the position

!"









o2 an indi&idual ho is as*ed to pro9ect his on 2antasies on in*blots that are not

supposed to represent anything; TG as perpetual Corshach test And 2urthermore6 ;The

TG image re7uires each instant that e 8close8 the spaces in the mesh by a con&ulsi&esensuous participation that is pro2oundly *inetic and tactile;

D) ;The edium is the essage; is the &ery slogan o2 the political economy o2 the sign,hen it enters into the third4order simulation 4 the distinction beteen the medium and

the message characteries instead signi2ication o2 the second4order

!) The entire current ;psychological; situation is characteried by this short4circuit

?oesn8t emancipation o2 children and teenagers, once the initial phase o2 re&olt is passed

and once there has been established the principle o2 the right to emancipation, seem li*e

the real emancipation o2 parents And the young (students, high4schoolers, adolescents)seem to sense it in their alays more insistent demand (though still as paradoxical) 2or

the presence and ad&ice o2 parents or o2 teachers Alone at last, 2ree and responsible, it

seemed to them suddenly that other people possibly ha&e absconded ith their trueliberty There2ore, there is no 7uestion o2 ;lea&ing them be; They8re going to hassle

them, not ith any emotional or material spontaneous demand but ith an exigency that

has been premeditated and corrected by an implicit oedipal *noledge #yperdependence

(much greater than be2ore) distorted by irony and re2usal, parody of libidinous originalmechanisms ?emand ithout content, ithout re2erent, un9usti2ied, but 2or all that all the

more se&ere 4 na*ed demand ith no possible anser The contents o2 *noledge

(teaching) or o2 a22ecti&e relations, the pedagogical or 2amilial re2erent ha&ing beeneliminated in the act o2 emancipation, there remains only a demand lin*ed to the empty

2orm o2 the institutionper&erse demand, and 2or that reason all the more obstinate

;Trans2erable; desire (that is to say nonre2erential, un4re2erential), desire that has been

2ed by lac*, by the place le2t &acant, ;liberated,; desire captured in its on &ertiginousimage, desire o2 desire, as pure 2orm, hyperreal ?epri&ed o2 symbolic substance, it

doubles bac* upon itsel2, dras its energy 2rom its on re2lection and its disappointmentith itsel2 This is literally today the ;demand,; and it is ob&ious that unli*e the

;classical; ob9ecti&e or trans2erable relations this one here is insoluble and interminable

Simulated 3edipus

Francois Cichard6 ;Students as*ed to be seduced either bodily or &erbally But also they

are aare o2 this and they play the game, ironically 8i&e us your *noledge, your presence, you ha&e the ord, spea*, you are there 2or that8 $ontestation certainly, but not

only6 the more authority is contested, &ili2ied, the greater the need 2or authority as such

They play at 3edipus also, to deny it all the more &ehemently The 8teach8, he8s ?addy,they say= it8s 2un, you play at incest, malaise, the untouchable, at being a tease 4 in order

to de4sexualie 2inally; <i*e one under analysis ho as*s 2or 3edipus bac* again, ho

tells the ;oedipal; stories, ho has the ;analytical; dreams to satis2y the supposed re7uesto2 the analyst, or to resist him> In the same ay the student goes through his oedipal

number, his seduction number, gets chummy, close, approaches, dominates 4 but this isn8t

desire, it8s simulation 3edipal psychodrama o2 simulation (neither less real nor less

!1







dramatic 2or all that) Gery di22erent 2rom the real libidinal sta*es o2 *noledge and

poer or e&en o2 a real mourning 2or the absence o2 same (as could ha&e happened a2ter

8@0 in the uni&ersities) 'o e8&e reached the phase o2 desperate reproduction, andhere the sta*es are nil, the simulacrum is maximal 4 exacerbated and parodied

simulation at one and the same time 4 as interminable as psychoanalysis and 2or the same

reasons

The interminable psychoanalysis

There is a hole chapter to add to the history o2 trans2erence and countertrans2erence6

that o2 their li7uidation by simulation, o2 the impossible psychoanalysis because it is

itsel2, 2rom no on, that produces and reproduces the unconscious as its institutionalsubstance Psychoanalysis dies also o2 the exchange o2 the signs o2 the unconscious Just

as re&olution dies o2 the exchange o2 the critical signs o2 political economy This short4

circuit as ell *non to Freud in the 2orm o2 the gi2t o2 the analytic dream, or ith the

;unin2ormed; patients, in the 2orm o2 the gi2t o2 their analytic *noledge But this as

still interpreted as resistance, as detour, and did not put 2undamentally into 7uestioneither the process o2 analysis or the principle o2 trans2erence It is another thing entirely

hen the unconscious itsel2, the discourse o2 the unconscious becomes un2indable 4according to the same scenario o2 simulati&e anticipation that e ha&e seen at or* on all

le&els ith the machines o2 the third order The analysis then can no longer end, it

becomes logically and historically interminable, since it stabilies on a puppet4substanceo2 reproduction, an unconscious programmed on demand 4 an impossible4to4brea*4

through point around hich the hole analysis is rearranged The messages o2 the

unconscious ha&e been short4circuited by the psychoanalysis ;medium; This is libidinal

hyperrealism To the 2amous categories o2 the real, the symbolic and the imaginary, it isgoing to be necessary to add the hyperreal, hich captures and obstructs the 2unctioning

o2 the three orders

@) Athenian democracy, much more ad&anced than our on, had reached the point herethe &ote as considered as payment 2or a ser&ice, a2ter all other repressi&e solutions had

been tried and 2ound anting in order to insure a 7uorum

-) In this sense e should radically criticie the pro9ection that <e&i4Strauss ma*es o2

binary structures as ;anthropological; mental structures and o2 dual organiation as the basic structure o2 primiti&e society The dualist 2orm that <e&i4Strauss ould so lo&e to

apply to primiti&e society is ne&er anything less than our on structural logic 3ur &ery

on code, that sel2same one that e use to dominate the ;archaic; societies <e&i4Strauss

has the *indness to slip this to them under the guise o2 mental structures that are commonto the hole human race They ill thereby be better prepared to recei&e the baptism o2

the 3ccident

0) The coe22icient o2 reality is proportional to the imaginary in re&erse hich gi&es it isspeci2ic density This is true o2 geographical and spatial exploration also :hen there is

no more territory &irgin and there2ore a&ailable 2or the imaginary, hen the map co&ers

the hole territory, then something li*e a principle o2 reality disappears The con7uest o2

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50106749 simulacration

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