>It is the equivalent of the primal scream of man alone in the world. Whether I am right in all this or not, they certainly do smile at you here, though neither from courtesy, nor from an effort to charm. This smile signifies only the need to smile. It is a bit like the Cheshire Cat’s grin: it continues to float on faces long after all emotion has disappeared. A smile available at any moment, but half-scared to exist, to give itself away. Noulterior motive lurks behind it, but it keeps you at a distance. It is part of the general cryogenization of emotions. It is, indeed, the smile the dead man will wear in his funeral home, as he clings to a hope of maintaining contact even in the next world. The smile of immunity, the smile of advertising: ‘This country is good. I am good. We are the best’. It is also Reagan’s smile - the culmination of the self-satisfaction of the entire American nation - which is on the way to becoming the sole principle of government. An autoprophetic smile, like all signs in advertising. Smile and others will smile back. Smile to show how transparent, how candid you are. Smile if you have nothing to say. Most of all, do not hide the fact you have nothing to say nor your total indifference to others. Let this emptiness, this profound indifference shine out spontaneously in your smile. Give your emptiness and indifference to others, light up your face with the zero degree of joy and pleasure, smile, smile, smile... Americans may have no identity, but they do have wonderful teeth.
Jean Baudrillard - America
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one-in-a-century writer
Woah it's like he is judging us based solely on watching our t.v.
He was in America, he witnessed the complete Utopia of modernity that is the USA
>americans have no identity
>outlining american identity earlier in the same paragraph
I'm not detecting a lot of thoughtfulness or self-awareness in this passage.
I hate it here as much as anyone but our culture is extremely diverse and I despise dull generalizations. Baudrillard is great in general.
>It is the equivalent of the primal scream of man alone in the world
To me it's the place where you can find the best and the worst of the Occident. You are at the frontline of modernity with its good and bad aspects. America is a great book, especially the end where he talks about the split between US and Europe.
The first half of his description also applies to soyface.
>DAE hate America? Americans are so superficial.
Baudrillard truly was a proto-redditor.
anti-americanism was a trait of the whole french intellectual elite
i would be interested in reading books on the united states and europe's tumultuous cultural relations.
not wrong at all
There's a reason people with jobs in the service industry are taught to always smile.
You're missing the point, if you read the book you'll see that he isn't anti-americanism at all, quite the contrary, he saw it as an utopia who got realized. He was fascinated by it. America is the true modern society, Europe is the dubbed or subbed version.
If you want modernity then America is the most authentic form.
kek
>If you want modernity then America is the most authentic form.
unironically this
but i dunno, he seems to have a little bit of contempt for america **who doesn't tho?**
In case of France as Clouscard said after WW2, the help of the USA to France (Marshall plan) was not only money but also a new market for cultural goods and a way of consuming it
I think it's more the way he saw things that seemed absurd to him, like TV always on in empty hotel rooms.
The way he depicts New York is quite funny sometimes
hes not wrong desu
Smiling in photographs is quite recent if you think about it, says a lot about society (Culture of Narcissism by Christopher Lasch)
>Smile to show how transparent, how candid you are. Smile if you have nothing to say. Most of all, do not hide the fact you have nothing to say nor your total indifference to others. Let this emptiness, this profound indifference shine out spontaneously in your smile.
goat-tier.
There are a number of reasons that people did not smile in photographs; e.g. a long exposure time meaning that you would have to hold the expression for too long; lack of modern dentistry meaning that many people had poor (or few) teeth; an association of photography with having a portrait painted, and thus adopting a more formal expression.
Anti-Americanism is literally a trait of everyone besides Americans
Probably the single most despised group of people in the world second only to Jews
He compared American culture to television, actually. It's all television.
He's not really wrong, but if you take away his words as being only a criticism, you're making a mistake. That part of our culture is both our strength and weakness.
The weak always resent the strong.
>conjecture on why strangers smile
This is the equivalent of a fucking self help book. Saying shit that comes out of your ass, albeit in a nicely written way, in order to impress people that seek meaning or help in their lives.
la luz extinguido...
spotted the redditor