The Spirit of Terrorism and Other Essays

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Verso, 2003 - Philosophy - 105 pages
Baudrillard sees the power of terrorists as lying in the symbolism of slaughter - not merely the reality of death, but a sacrificial death that challenges the whole system. Where previously the old revolutionary sought to conduct a struggle between real forces in the context of ideology and politics, the new terrorist mounts a powerful symbolic challenge which, when combined with high-tech resources, constitutes an unprecedented assault on an over-sophisticated and vulnerable West. This revised edition is updated with the essays Hypotheses on Terrorism and Violence of the Global.
 

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About the author (2003)

Jean Baudrillard (1929-2007) began teaching sociology at the Universite de Paris-X in 1966. He retired from academia in 1987 to write books and travel until his death in 2007. His many works include "Simulations and Simulacra," "America," "The Perfect Crime," "The System of Objects," "Passwords," "The Transparency of Evil," "The Spirit of Terrorism," and "Fragments," among others.

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