Baudrilliard antagonistic events

Antagonistic Events

In "Spirit of Terror," Baudrillard notes that antagonistic events increase as power increases (p. 5). The antagonist seeks to overthrow the superpower, and hence creates events by which this can be accomplished. The author also explains the World Wars and other antagonistic events during the 20th century in this way: each war has as its purpose the destruction of power. Baudrillard's focus is what he sees as the most extreme antagonistic event of all time, namely the 9/11 attacks. According to the author, this antagonistic event was leveled against the increasing superpower of the United States. Baudrillard's theory in this regard is that unmitigated and unbalanced power inspires antagonistic events.

What makes the latest antagonistic event different and much more terrible than the others is the fact that the event has global implications and signifies the beginning of a war on global scale. All other wars to date have been against a localized power and involved a number of identifiable main players. For the events signified by 9/11, however, the perpetrators are illusive, and the superpower is global. The scale of antagonism is therefore larger than it had been in history to date.

Baudrillard compares terrorism to a viral infection (p.10). It is everywhere, very difficult to identify and almost impossible to extract completely without destroying innocent lives in the process. According to the author, it is part of rather than apart from American culture. In its mission to dominate as a world power, the United States has also cultivated the spirit of terrorism that now exists both within its borders and internationally. It is a powerful and indestructible network that has as its central purpose the destruction of American domination. This purpose, being destructive, is carried out by violent means. Central to this idea is that, in its unmitigated growth towards superpower, the United States has concomitantly inspired and even created the counterforce; an antagonistic agent towards its own destruction.

In "Paroxysm," Baudrillard shares his vision regarding current war and peace paradigms with Philippe Petit. In Baudrillard's view, the current paradigm of antagonism is no longer conducive to a further history with further conflicts. Instead, antagonism today leads to absolutes of order and peace (p.17). The purpose of conflict is no longer war as such, but rather a sense of duty towards an ideal that is not related to war as such. Instead, it is a type of policing.

America, being the dominant world force, also views it as its task to keep order or wage war in the name of its ideals. As such, duty is at the heart of both war and peace. These paradigms, according to the author, have become indistinct, crushed not only beneath the weight of duty, but also beneath that of the superpower and its technologies. Lives, innocence and guilt have become irrelevant in the light of duty and ideal. War is no longer fought on the basis of who is morally correct, but rather on the basis of technology, destruction, and domination.

Today's violence, according to the author, is then antagonism against the world order and its attempted domination of all cultures other than its own. The terrible irony is that, in contrast to all other wars to date, the war spawned by America's super-domination of the world has at its core its own destruction.