Baudrillard, a sociologist by training, is perhaps best known for his concepts of "hyperreality" and "simulation."
Baudrillard advocated the idea that spectacle is crucial in creating our view of events - what he termed "hyperreality." Things do not happen if they are not seen to happen.
[...]The public's - and even the military's - view of the conflict came largely through television images; Saddam Hussein was not defeated; the U.S.-led coalition scarcely battled the Iraqi military and did not really win, since little was changed politically in Iraq after all the carnage. All the sound and fury signified little, he argued.
The Sept. 11 attacks, in contrast, were the hyper-real event par excellence - a fusion of history, symbolism and dark fantasy, "the mother of all events."
His views on the attacks sparked controversy. While terrorists had committed the atrocity, he wrote, "It is we who have wanted it. . . . Terrorism is immoral, and it responds to a globalization that is itself immoral."
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