In the Shadow of the Silent Majorities
by Jean Baudrillard
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Baudrillard's remarkably prescient meditation on terrorism throws light on post-9/11 delusional fears and political simulations. Published one year after Forget Foucault, In the Shadow of the Silent Majorities (1978) may be the most important sociopolitical manifesto of the twentieth century: it calls for nothing less than the end of both sociology and politics. Disenfranchised revolutionaries (the Red Brigades, the Baader-Meinhof Gang) hoped to reach the masses directly through spectacular show more actions, but their message merely played into the hands of the media and the state. In a media society meaning has no meaning anymore; communication merely communicates itself. Jean Baudrillard uses this last outburst of ideological terrorism in Europe to showcase the end of the "Social." Once invoked by Marx as the motor of history, the masses no longer have sociological reality. In the electronic media society, all the masses can do--and all they will do--is enjoy the spectacle. In the Shadow of the Silent Majorities takes to its ultimate conclusion the "end of ideologies" experienced in Europe after the Soviet invasion of Hungary and the death of revolutionary illusions after May 1968. Ideological terrorism doesn't represent anything anymore, writes Baudrillard, not even itself. It is just the last hysterical reaction to discredited political illusions. show lessTags
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Jean Baudrillard (1929-2007) was a philosopher, sociologist, cultural critic, and theorist of postmodernity who challenged all existing theories of contemporary society with humor and precision. An outsider in the French intellectual establishment, he was internationally renowned as a twenty-first century visionary, reporter, and provocateur.
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- In the Shadow of the Silent Majorities
Classifications
- Genres
- Sociology, Nonfiction, Philosophy, General Nonfiction, Literature Studies and Criticism
- DDC/MDS
- 302.23 — Society, Government, and Culture Social sciences, sociology & anthropology Mass Communication & Media Communication Media (Means of communication)
- LCC
- HM866 .B38132 — Social sciences Sociology (General) Sociology Social change
- BISAC
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- 255
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- 126,594
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- (3.58)
- Languages
- 9 — Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 14
- ASINs
- 1
