Has True Romance Disappeared in Consumer Society ? A Morinian and Baudrillardian Reflection of the Acute Crisis of Simulation
emanates from an elaborate semiotic network comprised of enticing signs from which there is “ no exit ” ( Kellner 128 ). Morin explains that the powers that be no longer need to subdue the masses using brute force , given the ideological efficacy of the images of success , happiness , and luxury that bombard the postmodern subject through a myriad of divergent screens . Moreover , the philosopher describes stars as floating signifiers that no longer refer to anything real outside of a code imploring brainwashed consumers to purchase more items at the mall or in a department store . For all intents and purposes , Morin insists that the public persona of a given celebrity , which is merely another imaginary product to be sold through a line of accessories that supposedly allow someone to live like Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie , has “ eclipsed ” the real ( Norris n . p .). In simple terms , stars have assumed the hegemonic function of convincing the public that the grandiose , far-fetched simulations that flash across our screens are somehow attainable , if we are able to acquire enough metonymical bits of these illusory pipe dreams . As the following section of this essay will highlight in a more systematic fashion , perhaps the most profitable aspect of the fantasies that stars are constantly peddling in advertisements and commercials is an image of romance that is quite disconnected from concrete reality .
As numerous critics like Alex Cline , Douglas Kellner , Kelly Maddox , Gerry Coulter , Emil André Røyrvik , and Marianne Blom Brodersen note , “ Jean Baudrillard is widely considered to be one of the first post-Marxist philosophers ” ( Cline n . p .). Similar to Morin , Baudrillard often expresses his disquieting anxiety related to the deluge of insignificant signs that accost us at nearly every waking moment in consumer republics , a term coined by the historian Lizabeth Cohen in A Consumers ’ Republic : The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar Ameri-
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