Friday, March 09, 2007
Memorial in the death of a postmodern master of Philosophy
Really sad to say that one of the eminent philosophers of postmodern thought died today. Jean Baudrillard died at the age of 77 yrs, and it really feels that I have lost a relative. Before I was Christian, before I could articulate a sense of postmodern spirituality that critiques reality, and making connections to marxist and socialist thought (that I helpfully grew up with) Baudrillard had challanged much of the oppressive and patriarchical thinking of Modernity and the myth of objective truth. He, in my view, prophetically enabled people to reimagine another way of thinking that was not held ransom to the imperialism of a scientific mind and reductionism. Instead, he promoted thinking about hyper-reality - the bedrock idea behind Pete Rollins work, J Caputo's work, and thinking I share about new forms of postmodern-mysticism. It starts with this man.
He stood up to the gulf war, outed the power of media covered wars, critiqued power structures, and exposed the ridiculous assumptions of nationhood and nationalism promoting a profound vision of our common humanity - not as a spiritual person in the religious sense - but as a prophetic and wise philosopher.
His thinking, in the book Simulacra and Simulation he creates the thought behind the paradigm of a collective unconsciousness and many profound things - so impressive that it encouraged the Wachowski writers of the Matrix - a profound film of major encouragement to many Emerging Church types.
I wish this hero of mine peace. His thinking has had a profound affect on my life and my faith.
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