Baudrillard's Assertions about America - Thesis Proposal Example

What is America? Table of Contents Response to Baudrillards Assertions About America 3 Thesis 3 Critique and Response 3 Works Cited 8 Response to Baudrillards Assertions About America Thesis This paper asserts that Baudrillards insights into America as being essentially barren, with no culture and with no founding truth to it, among other things, are inaccurate, and do not hold water in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. On the other hand, as an insider, I cannot also help but be impressed that Baudrillard, while seeming to criticize what America stands for, actually has something very positive to say about this outward lack of culture. His vantage point is that of an outsider looking in from the other side of the fence, and he is holding up a mirror to me as an insider. He is living the life in a culture whose foundations my society has consciously rejected. From that rejection America built its own foundations of modernity and progress. He is saying that America largely succeeded, and that this success has bred its own unique realities for America. On closer inspection this insight is really refreshing, as are the other positive insights of Baudrillard. In fact he seems to put down French culture, his own culture, to some extent, and glorify what Americas version of culture has to offer (Baudrillard 76-105). Critique and Response First it is important to undertake a critique of Baudrillards work, prior to elaborating on this papers response. Baudrillard makes some interesting assertions, for example, with regard to America being a kind of artificial satellite of Europe, with Americas life being a manifestation of a kind of utopia. This utopia, according to Baudrillard, is material in nature, pragmatic, using the languages of labor and success. This utopia is modernity, in so many words, an escape from the history and politics of Europe. On the other hand, that America is a European satellite implies that the sense of modernity is a reaction or a movement within Europe that was essentially imported to America by the exiles, and made the dominant force in politics, industry, culture, morality and all the major currents of public and private life. What the utopian moralists failed to bring about in Europe, they were able to successfully bring about in America. Baudrillard makes the point that Americas utopia is that which is made up of the country succeeding where Europe failed, in terms of living out a bountiful life with the rule of law dominant, and living out a free life. The problem of America accordingly is how to make this utopia last, according to Baudrillard. Meanwhile, the author also basically asserts that Americas fiction is believing that it was able to make this utopia a reality from scratch, even as Baudrillard also says that Americas way of life, built on pragmatism and hard work rather than on history and culture, is something that distinguishes itself from the rest of the world. It is also something that is at the heart of the modernity that the US represents- progress, “unculture”, the achievement of the utopian way of life that is rich in material wealth, free, and happy, with no cultural baggage from Europe. (Baudrillard 76-79). This is not to say that Baudrillard sees himself and the French and European condition as being superior to the condition of the Americans and America. What he is saying seems to be that at heart what defines America is its modernity, and its complete break with the past to achieve something that cannot be achieved in Europe- success with that break. Europe, according to Baudrillard, can never hope to become like America, in the same way that America can never hope to become like Europe. Europe is about history and the shape of its history and politics defining the soul of European society. America, on the other hand, is founded exactly on a complete break with history, culture, and everything that makes Europe Europe. Meanwhile, Americas version of success has become the norm all over the world. Modernity has triumphed, according to Baudrillard, and America is the eye of that modern storm so to speak. On the other hand, this very success has bred exactly the kinds of problems associated with modernity. To Baudrillard the break with history and culture has meant that America was prosperous and happy and able to do away with the problems of Europe altogether. On the other hand that has also resulted in America lacking a soul and a sense of culture and history. The critique of Baudrillard is that this situation has left America always living in the present moment with no sense of real history to fall back on. This lack of culture shows up in the Americans easy going nature, their lack of pretentiousness, their sense of equality, their sense of freedom, their natural possession of those. Baudrillard then goes on to say that as far as culture is concerned, the things of culture and what it breeds, such as an appreciation for the intellectual life, America is a desert. The author then says that on the other hand, culture in America is real, focused as it is on real things like technology and efficiency as well as the cinema. This is opposed to French culture, which is inauthentic, stale, and really nothing. In America everything that seems holy and important in Europe is reversed, according to the author, and all that is left seems more real and fascinating instead. In the main what Baudrillard is saying is that America is the antithesis of Europe and on its own what that means is not always bad or negative. On the other hand, the modern way of life that America represents is in some ways better and more refreshing, and more real, than what Europe has to offer (Baudrillard 76-105). First, in response, Baudrillard has something very profound to say about what culture in America stands for. He is saying that in essence America has no culture in the European sense, having no foundation in history. Well this is inaccurate, as is the implication that America has no soul, or no sense of history or self. It is true that it is founded on other values, such as freedom, love of reason, the rule of law, and human rights as Baudrillard says. On the other hand, the fruits of that are seen in a vibrant culture too. We have monuments to culture for instance that belie Baudrillards thesis that all we do is live in the present, as if we are made up of other stuff as the Europeans. His praise for modernity is mixed in with a kind of portrayal of us Americans as being essentially not the same as the rest of humanity, but this is not true at all. We share their consciousness too, as evidenced from our monuments to culture, such as the Smithsonian and the MOMA. Likewise, that we are a natural melting pot of peoples is in itself a positive. In all of history those have been the places that have been the source of innovations in culture, or in the flowering of new forms of culture (Baudrillard 76-105; MoMA; Smithsonian). It is true that in Europe his sense of being suffocated by old things seems to have some weight. I can imagine for instance being suffocated by being in a house filled with old artifacts I cannot relate to. There is also the popular caricature of stuffy, stiff Europeans who cannot seem to blend in with more easy-going Americans that come to mind. On the other hand where Baudrillard seems to strike a chord is in his overall praise of American modernity, while at the same time speaking from the point of view of a French man who seems to enjoy mocking himself and his own culture. At the same time though he seems to speak from the position of someone who sees more than I do, as an average American. He uses language that seems to reflect learning, and a jaded sense of culture. Personally this is hard to swallow, even if well-meaning. As an American, with access to the culture of the world, and with the power and prestige of my position, it is not easy to swallow that the modernist position is advantageous by virtue of its practical power, but not in the sense of being on equal footing with the culture and learning of the Europeans. In truth it may be said that from where I stand, I am more European than Baudrillard, because I am not as weighed down by the past, history, and by stuffy artifacts of old European culture (Baudrillard 76-105). Works Cited Baudrillard, “Utopia Achieved”. America. Verso Press. MoMA. The Museum of Modern Art Homepage. 2012. Web. 22 October 2012. Smithsonian. Smithsonian Homepage. 2012. Web. 22 October 2012. Read More