A Vicious Cycle?

Simulacrum is used to describe the representation of another thing. According to Jean Baudrillard that representation, that simulacrum, is no longer a copy of the real thing, but rather becomes the real thing in itself, a hyperreal. Films such as, “The Matrix” and “The Truman Show” depict characters stuck in a world of simulation, a hyperreal. While my generation, the one seemingly obsessed with technology, begins to dive deeper and deeper into a world of simulation, while the characters within such fictional films about simulacrum struggle to break from such a world. While we continue to surround ourselves with more and more simulation, with our instant messaging, e-mail, Facebook, MySpace, etc., perhaps we’re simply heading to a world we’ll soon want to break free of as well. Then we’ll find ourselves stuck in an endless cycle, such as the characters in “The Matrix Trilogy” also found themselves in. They build the machines, and then the machines take over, destroy humans, but then repopulate them in order to use them as fuel, indeed a vicious cycle. Our society will create a hyperreal for ourselves, only to end up breaking free from it and then will only end up creating one again. From the films it seems humans simply don’t fit well in a hyperreal, perhaps because it is exaggerated, over and beyond as Jean Baudrillard stated. Why do we continue to create a hyperreal around us, when we claim that is a world we fear and strive to break out of?