Ken Rufo Responce

First off I would like to thank Ken Rufo for a great post. You had some really great examples that allowed me to understand Baudriarrd or at least get a grasp on what he was trying to say. The first thing that I would talk about is the Matrix. I have not yet finsihed the movie but from what I have seen I got the impression that what it is trying to say is that we cannot see the real. That everything around us is built. The matrix is a program that was designed for people to not be able to see what the world truly is. It is kind of like Alagory of the cave. In the story a philosper takes a man out of the darkness and tries to show him the realities of the world. It is kind of like a Marxist opinion of the world. What Ken was saying is that Marxists believe that everything is created by our surroundings but what Baudirarrd is saying is that even that isn't real. He is saying that nothing around us is real even the things that are supposivly socialy constructed are not real. Everything around us just continues to go from signifier to signifier. A quote that i like from Ken Rufo's discussion is "What he does say is that the mass production of objects and the general flow of wealth is making it possible, more and more, for people of lower classes to "simulate" living like people in the upper classes" (Rufo). It really helped me to understand what he was trying to say. What he is saying is that everything that we buy and consume is just making us believe that we are truly living. By buying things it is simulating life.