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Jean Baudrillard Quotes

Philosopher

Jean Baudrillard was a French philosopher known for his critical studies on consumerism, media, and semiotics. His theories have had a profound impact on postmodernism and cultural studies.

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Famous Jean Baudrillard Quotes

“The Yuppies are not defectors from revolt, they are a new race, assured, amnestied, exculpated, moving with ease in the world of performance, mentally indifferent to any objective other than that of change and advertising.”

World Moving Race Performances Objectives Advertising Ease Indifferent Assured Revolt Yuppies Defectors

Book:America

Source: America

“The day the world ends, no one will be there, just as no one was there when it began. This is a scandal. Such a scandal for the human race that it is indeed capable collectively, out of spite, of hastening the end of the world by all means just so it can enjoy the show.”

World Humans Mean Ends Shows Enjoy Race Capable Human Race Spite Scandal End Of The World

Book:Cool memories

Source: Cool memories

“Every photographed object is merely the trace left behind by the disappearance of all the rest. It is an almost perfect crime, an almost total resolution of the world, which merely leave the illusion of a particular object shining forth, the image of which then becomes an impenetrable enigma.”

World Left Perfect Behinds Crime Objects Particular Illusion Shining Resolution Left Behind Disappearance Enigma Almost Perfect Perfect Crime

Book:Fotografien

Source: Fotografien

“The image is not a medium for which we have to find the proper use. It is what it is and it is beyond all our moral considerations. It is by its essence immoral, and the world's becoming-image is an immoral process.”

World Use Process Moral Becoming Essence Mediums Consideration Immoral It Is What It Is

Book:Fotografien

Source: Fotografien

“For me, the photography, in its purest form, is a variant of the fable. Another way of saving the appearances - a way of signifying, through this fabulous capture, that this supposed real world is always about to lose its meaning and its reality.”

World Way Real Reality Form Loses Photography Appearance Saving Capture Real World Fabulous Another Way Fables Signifying

Author:Jean Baudrillard

“There is nothing funny about Halloween. This sarcastic festival reflects, rather, an infernal demand for revenge by children on the adult world.”

Source: America

“To love someone is to isolate him from the world, wipe out every trace of him, dispossess him of his shadow, drag him into a murderous future. It is to circle around the other like a dead star and absorb him into a black light.”

World Love Light Stars Black Shadow Circles Broken Heart Drag Love Someone Wipe Wiping Out

Author:Jean Baudrillard

“The world is not dialectical - it is sworn to extremes, not to equilibrium, sworn to radical antagonism, not to reconciliation or synthesis. This is also the principle of evil.”

World Evil Principles Opposites Extremes Radical Reconciliation Equilibrium Synthesis Antagonism

Author:Jean Baudrillard

“We live in a world where there is more and more information, and less and less meaning.”

World Information Theorists Too Much Information Information Overload Simulacrum

Book:Simulacra and Simulation

Source: Simulacra and Simulation

“Everywhere one seeks to produce meaning, to make the world signify, to render it visible. We are not, however, in danger of lacking meaning; quite the contrary, we are gorged with meaning and it is killing us.”

World Danger Produce Killing Contrary Meaning Of Life Visible Lacking

Author:Jean Baudrillard

“Imagine the amazing good fortune of the generation that gets to see the end of the world. This is as marvelous as being there in the beginning.”

World Ends Imagine Generations Fortune Marvelous End Of The World Good Fortune Being There

Book:Fragments: Cool Memories III, 1990-1995

Source: Fragments: Cool Memories III, 1990-1995

“The war was won on both sides: by the Vietnamese on the ground, by the Americans in the electronic mental space. And if the one side won an ideological and political victory, the other made Apocalypse Now and that has gone right around the world.”

Ifs World Made War Political Sides Space Gone Military Victory Around The World Apocalypse Both Sides Vietnam War Ideological Vietnamese Political Victory

Book:America

Source: America

“If everything is perfect, language is useless. This is true for animals. If animals don't speak, it's because everything's perfect for them. If one day they start to speak, it will be because the world has lost a certain sort of perfection.”

Ifs World Certain Lost Speak Language Perfect Animal One Day Perfection Useless

Book:Cool memories

Source: Cool memories

“Depression moods lead, almost invariably, to accidents. But, when they occur, our mood changes again, since the accident shows we can draw the world in our wake, and that we still retain some degree of power even when our spirits are low. A series of accidents creates a positively light-hearted state, out of consideration for this strange power.”

World Stills States Shows Light Spirit Power Strange Depression Degrees Lows Draws Series Accidents Mood Consideration Positively Hearted Light Hearted Mood Changes

Book:Cool memories

Source: Cool memories

“You need an infinite stretch of time ahead of you to start to think, infinite energy to make the smallest decision. The world is getting denser. The immense number of useless projects is bewildering. Too many things have to be put in to balance up an uncertain scale. You can't disappear anymore. You die in a state of total indecision.”

Thinking World Needs States Dies Energy Decision Numbers Balance Projects Infinite Disappear Scales Useless Immense Smallest Uncertain Indecision

Book:Cool memories

Source: Cool memories

“The order of the world is always right - such is the judgment of God. For God has departed, but he has left his judgment behind, the way the Cheshire Cat left his grin.”

World Way God Order Left Behinds Judging Judgment Cat Departed

Author:Jean Baudrillard

“All of [the] activities here have a surreptitious end-of-the-world feel to them:... these joggers sleepwalking in the mist like shadow's who have escaped from Plato's cave”

World Feels Ends Activity Shadow Plato Caves End Of The World Mist Plato S Sleepwalking Plato's Cave

Author:Jean Baudrillard

“The price we pay for the complexity of life is too high. When you think of all the effort you have to put in -telephonic, technological and relational -to alter even the slightest bit of behavior in this strange world we call social life, you are left pining for the straightforwardness of primitive peoples and their physical work.”

Thinking World Life Is Left Social Bits Effort Pay Strange Behavior Simplicity Complexity Primitive Technological Social Life Pining Strange World

Author:Jean Baudrillard

“The cities of the world are concentric, isomorphic, synchronic. Only one exists and you are always in the same one. It's the effect of their permanent revolution, their intense circulation, their instantaneous magnetism.”

World Cities Effects Revolution Intense Permanent Rebellious Circulation City Life Instantaneous Magnetism Cities In The World Cities At Night

Book:Cool memories

Source: Cool memories

“It is a world completely rotten with wealth, power, senility, indifference, puritanism and mental hygiene, poverty and waste, technological futility and aimless violence, and yet I cannot help but feel it has about it something of the dawning of the universe. Perhaps because the entire world continues to dream of New York, even as New York dominates and exploits it.”

World Feels Helping Dream Universe Wealth Poverty Violence New York Waste Indifference Technological Exploits Rotten Futility Hygiene Puritanism Senility

Book:America

Source: America

“What you have to do is enter the fiction of America, enter America as fiction. It is, indeed, on this fictive basis that it dominates the world.”

World America Fiction Society Bases

Book:America

Source: America

“If you are prepared to accept the consequences of your dreams then you must still regard America today with the same naive enthusiasm as the generations that discovered the New World.”

Ifs World Stills Dream Today America Accepting Generations Discovery Consequence Regard Prepared Enthusiasm Your Dreams New World Naive America Today

Book:America

Source: America

“It is the task of radical thought, since the world is given to us unintelligibly, to make it more unintelligible, more enigmatic, more fabulous.”

World Given Tasks Radical Fabulous Enigmatic

Author:Jean Baudrillard

About the Author

Born: July 27, 1929
Died: March 6, 2007
Known for: Philosopher
Quotes: 534

Books & Sources

Cool memoriesRelated source material

Cool Memories V: 2000 - 2004Related source material

The Transparency of Evil: Essays in Extreme PhenomenaRelated source material

The Intelligence of Evil or the Lucidity PactRelated source material

AmericaRelated source material

FragmentsRelated source material

Simulacra and SimulationRelated source material

The Perfect CrimeRelated source material

The Agony of PowerRelated source material

Cool Memories IV, 1995-2000Related source material

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