Simulacra and Simulation

"Nibby" (nibby68) 11/20/2014 at 11:50 • Filed to: None

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The medium is the message.

Behind this exacerbated mise-en-scène of communication, the mass media, the pressure of information pursues an irresistible destructuration of the social.

Thus information dissolves meaning and dissolves the social, in a sort of nebulous state dedicated not to a surplus of innovation, but, on the contrary, to total entropy.

Thus the media are producers not of socialization, but of exactly the opposite, of the implosion of the social in the masses. And this is only the macroscopic extension of theimplosion of meaning at the microscopic level of the sign. This implosion should be analyzed according to McLuhan's formula, the medium is the message, the consequences of which have yet to be exhausted.

That means that all contents of meaning are absorbed in the only dominant form of the medium. Only the medium can make an event - whatever the contents, whether they are conformist or subversive. A serious problem for all counterinformation, pirate radios, antimedia, etc. But there is something even more serious, which McLuhan himself did not see. Because beyond this neutralization of all content, one could still expect to manipulate the medium in its form and to transform the real by using the impact of the medium as form. If all the content is wiped out, there is perhaps still a subversive, revolutionary use value of the medium as such. That is - and this is where McLuhan's formula leads, pushed to its limit - there is not only an implosion of the message in the medium, there is, in the same movement, the implosion of the medium itself in the real, the implosion of themedium and of the real in a sort of hyperreal nebula, in which even the definition anddistinct action of the medium can no longer be determined.

Even the "traditional" status of the media themselves, characteristic of modernity, is put in question. McLuhan's formula, the medium is the message, which is the key formula of the era of simulation (the medium is the message - the sender is the receiver - the circularity of all poles - the end of panoptic and perspectival space - such is the alpha and omega of our modernity), this very formula must be imagined at its limit where, after all the contents and messages have been volatilized in the medium, it is the medium itself that is volatilized as such. Fundamentally, it is still the message that lends credibility to the medium, that gives the medium its determined, distinct status as the intermediary of communication. Without a message, the medium also falls into the indefinite state characteristic of all our great systems of judgment and value. A single model, whose efficacy is immediate, simultaneously generates the message, the medium, and the "real." - Jean Baudrillard

Meatcoma > Nibby 11/20/2014 at 12:02

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The medium is the message.

Or in the case of this car - The medium is the massage.

Bricks > Nibby 11/20/2014 at 12:17

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ACESandEIGHTS > Nibby 11/20/2014 at 12:20

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I'll buy that for a dollar. I'm not a big fan of "The Medium is the Message" because, as seen here, it tends to be dissected without discussing the practical application, or, as James Brown said: Like a dull knife/ just ain't cuttin'/ just talkin' loud/ ain't sayin' nothing.

Though here's a heretofore not-oft-analyzed consequence of the trickle-down effect that luxury automobiles have on the lowly utilitarian car-buying public: While Daimler and Volvo and Saab (and Bentley and Lexus and whoever else you want to throw in here as "progenitors") give us plenty of useful innovation like seat belts and heated wind screens and air bags and disc brakes and backup cameras and all the rest, how much of this shit is necessary? Are we better off with cars that have 100% power windows with a questionable durability? How many sports cars are now auto transmission with power steering and brakes and power everythingfuckingelse? Is that good? How about the literally thousands of other electronic tchotchkes that make our cars luxury chariots but also make us and them prone to distraction, breakdown, perceived obsolescence and shortened practical lifespan?

What's the distilled essence of enjoyment and sensibility in an automobile? Lightweight roadsters? Pared-down jalopies that are easy to work on and modify? Cheap hatchbacks with a bevy of aftermarket fun tunes (all of these are virtually non-existent in today's world of course)? It sure the fuck isn't this, but apparently this is what we've come to.

RallyWrench > Nibby 11/20/2014 at 15:15

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Have a Wax Simulacra:

Nibby > ACESandEIGHTS 11/20/2014 at 22:10

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The medium is the message was written 50 years ago... in a way, it's a bit surprising how it's still relevant in many aspects. But like you said, it is by no means a panacea.

With automobiles, it all comes down to (at least the way I see it) personal preference.