Ron Burgundy, 10/1

In class on Thursday we discussed Baudrillard and his thoughts on dissimulation and simulation. According to Baudrillard “ to dissimulate is to pretend not to have what one has [….] to simulate is to feign to have what one doesn’t have” (454). Dr. Rog depicted this concept by showing us different pictures of various soldiers in war to exemplify Baudrillard’s points on what is “real” versus what is simulated, and therefore evil. One of the first pictures we looked at showed several American soldiers, either hurt or deceased, lying on the ground in front of an army tank. This type of image, in Baudrillard’s mind, is a good image as it accurately reflects reality of war. This image was in contrast to the subsequent picture that showed dozens of coffins covered by American flags being brought home in an airplane. According to Baudrillard, the second of these images “masks and denatures reality” because it does not blatantly depict the dead soldiers but instead provides you with the notion of their death by the coffins with flags laying over them. As we discussed this in class, I wondered if Baudrillard would critique our media coverage of the war and the images that are often seen in the war on television and even in news articles. Most frequently the images associated with the war in these types of media reflect more of the second image ideas, dead soldiers in coffins but not just pictures of them dead on location. If I am following Baudrillard’s ideas when the media shows these kinds of images, they are deceiving the public, feeding them a false sense of the reality of the war and causalities. But I have to question whether Baudrillard would be correct then to ask the media to show the other type of image, that which is often gory and shocking. The reason why I question this type of image as appropriate for the media is because of the factor of ethics that goes along with putting such an image in the media. Images are a sort of communication from one person to another and as with all communication, involve ethical implications. Therefore as we go to put an image of five dead soldiers lying on the ground in a battlefield we must first question the ethics of communicating such an image to our audience. We must wonder if the family of the deceased would be ok with such a public display of the tragedy of a loved one, or if it is in fact unethical to show such a private and tragic image that could be damaging to a family. In my opinion, the concept of simulation and dissimulation that Baudrillard discusses, particularly looking at images and the evil of images that “conceal the truth”, is not as simple as saying the people need reality, there are other factors such as ethics that have to put into consideration that may hold greater weight as well.