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Our Illusionary Society
The dangers of a false reality
Jean Baudrillard, a French philosopher and sociologist, once said that America was a country that has layered illusion upon illusion, moving away from reality at a rapid rate. He mentioned the growing influence of TV and the growth of Las Vegas and Disneyland as evidence of his premise of “Hyperreality.”
He made that observation in the 1970s and predicted that we were so far from reality that we would soon elect an actor as President of the country.
His prognostication came before Ronald Reagan, our first actor/President was elected, and fifty years before divisive politics gave us Donald Trump.
Long before the Internet, YouTube, and streaming movies, America, along with much of the Western world, had become mesmerized by entertainment figures and those of dubious fame, such as notorious gangsters.
Coincidentally, the first 24/7 cable news show, CNN, made its debut in 1980, the same year we sent an actor to the White House. Other channels followed, their programming sometimes more propaganda instruments than information sources.
In the decades since Ronald Reagan, the ubiquitous cellphone, TV, and ePad with hundreds of Internet channels streaming scripted reality shows, movies, and opinion pieces masquerading as factual…
