Blog post #7: Strategy of the real

This chapter is interesting yet still very abstract and hard to understand ...

In this chapter, Baudrillard points out that the real and the illusion are intertwined, in the way that one would be impossible without the other. His idea that one can never simulate something without involving the real in it is very interesting and true indeed. It makes me remember about The Stanford Prison experiment, where they were trying to simulate the real life of prison. They basically had people volunteered to participate, half of whom acted as prisoners and the other half as prison guards. The simulated prison then quickly turned into a real prison where the guards mistreat the prisoners, beating, starving, torturing them. The experiment was stopped prior to its intended date because the prisoners were so tormented that they could not stand it anymore. It simulated a sense of power for the prison guards over the prisoners, making the guards believing themselves to be the law and order. They played with their simulated power and harmed others without fear, because in the simulation, they are the order. Indeed, "simulation is infinitely more dangerous, since it always suggests that law and order themselves might really be nothing more than a simulation" [p.38]. The simulation led to real mental problems for its victims, many of whom are still haunted because of the simulated experience to these days.