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Quote :Simulacra and Simulation
The objective profile of America, then, may be traced throughout Disneyland, even down to the morphology of individuals and the crowd. All its values are exalted here, in miniature and in comic strip form….But this conceals something else...Disneyland is there to conceal the fact that it is the "real" country, all of "real" America, which is Disneyland (just as prisons are there to conceal the fact that it is the social in its entirety, in its banal omnipresence, which is carceral). Disneyland is presented as imaginary in order to make us believe that the rest is real, when in fact all of Los Angeles and the America surrounding it are no longer real, but of the order of the hyperreal and of simulation.
Are you second-guessing Goofy yet? We can think that Disneyland seems pretty straightforward when you get past the giant mice and princesses and long lines for Splash Mountain: we imagine it's just a fantasy version of America, where happy folks wander down Main Street, USA, and we can feel good about our technological know-how in Tomorrowland.
But imagining that harmless fantasy, Baudrillard is oh-so-creepily telling us, is only fooling ourselves. Disneyland doesn't give us a brief escape from "reality"—it tricks us into thinking that "reality" exists somewhere beyond the walls of the theme park. But it doesn't. Everything we think of as being "real" is really just simulation.
Baudrillard's argument in Simulacra and Simulation isn't just tricky to get our heads around; it's also pretty freaky. He's telling us that modern-day culture in North America has come to the point where "reality" doesn't exist anymore; we've killed it, because all we do is participate in an endless circulation of signs and simulacra that have no meaning of their own.
So what's real then? Not much. We've created the impression of reality, but it's hollow underneath. And consumer culture is largely to blame. Who know Mickey Mouse could be so sinister?