Ph.D. Oleg Maltsev. Current events through the prism of Baudrillard
If we analyze the European continent’s situation in the last four months from the viewpoint of philosophy, radical anthropology and sociology, we should formulate basic questions in the first place. What is going on (1) and why did hysteria happen(2)? Often it is all about “what” and not “why” and “how,” finding out an answer to “what” does not cardinally change anything. Before coming to “why” and “how” Baudrillard’s philosophical system’s main points will be outlined as concisely as possible in this short paper. Some rightly believe that Jean Baudrillard “built” a system (for illustrative purposes “a structure”), numbered every block of it, and later dismantled the structure, ripped apart the sketches and left his system to people without clues. As a result of studying his writings and photography, in the book co-authored with Lucien Oulahbib Maestro. The Last Prophet of Europe, I deduced and described the principal model – a compound philosophical system of Baudrillard. His system permits us to accurately understand events that occur in the world and answer questions such as what, when, why and how. The model gives answers through one discipline or several.
An outlook through Baudrillard’s system has a triad model:
- a) the world we live in;
- b) the prism (screen) that we look through
- c) inexplicable events
At the same time, reversibility perpetually hangs over the world like a Domoklov sword. Godfather of postmodernism regularly indicated that the world is reversible, and sooner or later, all phenomena terminate. According to Baudrillard, the world we live in is a large “structure,” it entitles so many concepts that he singled out. Therefore I have grouped all notions related to the definition of the world by Baudrillard into specific groups: “Stimulation”, “Mechanisms”, “Condition”, and “Reversibility. “Stimulation” is a direct impact on something, which was expressed by Baudrillard through “fascinating disasters”, “resurrection” and “extreme reality.” Following notions refer to the “mechanisms of the world”: a crime that has no punishment (Perfect Crime), “modern science as a generator of profitable ignorance”, “network of symbolic exchange” (Symbolic Exchange and Death), “substitution of notions”, “double standard”, “reality replaced by simulation models” (Transparency of Evil, Simulacra and Simulation).
“Condition” or rather the status of everything today is described by Baudrillard by means of concepts such as the “silent majority” (In the Shadow of the Silent Majorities, Or, the End of the Social), “the code”, “problems of the social”, “a world that cannot be interpreted socially”, “world of chaos and chance”. The last fourth group is about the manifestation of “mysticism” or “reversibility.” Thus, there is a particular structure of interaction between these groups of phenomena. The “condition” is produced by “stimulation”, and this “impact” is carried out by specific “mechanisms” with reversibility hanging over at all times. It can be described as follows: some mechanisms provide momentum, which in turn provides a certain state on a global scale. Speaking of “Stimulation”, Baudrillard believes that “Extreme reality breeds fascinating disasters, and the media and ignorance of the “chosen” pass animated signs to them, and arrange by mystical or other human forms.”
“Extreme reality” generates “fascinating disasters”, they in turn, along with the media and the “ignorance of the chosen,” endow them with human properties and animate them. Drawing a parallel between the world singled out by Baudrillard in his writings with the events that took place during the pandemic, we could see the same pattern. The extreme environment in which we operate produced the pandemic. The media worldwide and leaders of different levels have turned it into an animated thing (for example, interviews are conducted with the coronavirus). Coronavirus becomes an animated object to communicate with; besides the devastating physical consequences of the pandemic, it is a vivid illustration of what happens after the impact or stimulation.
Another block as “mechanisms” described by Baudrillard could be divided into two categories. Crime and evil – from one side, they are interrelated (Perfect Crime and Transparency of Evil) because “evil” generates crime. Another group constitutes “science as a generator of profitable ignorance,” “symbolic exchange networks,” “substitution of notions”, “reality replaced by simulation models.” At the same time, science in this model has a dual meaning, because it creates the screen (the prism) and generates profitable ignorance.
By means of a primary and secondary method, we can conclude that the “transparency of evil” produces “committed crimes”, “science as a generator of ignorance” that allow and generate “substitution of values”, which, in turn, through “network and symbolic exchange of networks” provide “reality, superseded by simulation models”. This is the way the mechanism works in simple words. Correspondingly, the group of “Condition” phenomena works in the following sequence: “a world of chaos and chance” that cannot be “interpreted socially”, generates “social problems.” Further on, problems are amplified and “orgy” begins. Power strives to take shape and form during the orgy, by trespassing all thinkable and unthinkable laws, thus generating the silent majority a “reality” with reversibility hanging over it as a Domoklov sword (please see the image).
The aforementioned described the causes and consequences as well as mechanisms that produce events in the world in a way they are now. As stated in the beginning, Baudrillard’s philosophy is a powerful scientific tool in understanding the causes of events that take place in the world. At the same time, it is evident that the system “works” coherently like a single machine. Baudrillard’s philosophy is straightforward for one who is not only familiar with his works, but has a thorough understanding of them. Thorough analysis and studying with a pencil every book and interview of Baudrillard allowed me to deduce the concept presented in this brief paper. As for the “prism” according to Baudrillard’s philosophy, it consists of 5 components: “illusion,” “simulation,” “hyperreality,” “virtuality” and “mechanisms that produce aforementioned”. These mechanisms are tightly interconnected with the world. The Mysticism of Baudrillard is a complex order characterized by six phenomena: “Symbolic System,” “Destiny,” “Fatality,” “Death,” “Mechanisms of dependency and interaction (seduction)” and “what provides possibilities for humans.” Apparently, his system allowed him to prognose future events with astonishing precision that many people consider him to be a “prophet” (a title that Baudrillard had disagreed with). Baudrillard clearly described not only what is happening in the world but also explained the causes of it.
Ph.D. Oleg Maltsev
Author, researcher, criminologist, psychologist. Academician of Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. Founder and director of The Memory Institute, head of Expeditionary Corps. He is an author of numerous books in areas such as applied history, sociology, depth psychology, philosophy, criminalistics, criminology.
