and visual consumption. They do not educate us, they inform us […] If we
understand war for what it is today […] namely the instrument of a violent
acculturation to the world order, then the media and images are part of the
Integral Reality of war. They are the subtler instrument of the same
homogenization by force (The Intelligence of Evil 77).
Baudrillard adamantly maintains that the goal of image saturation is not to
encourage critical reflection, but instead to keep the populace in line. Whereas political
authorities used to deploy grandiose spectacles of brute military force to eliminate
resistance, this simulated violence is no longer necessary to pacify the public.
Misinformation transmitted by a corporate media that is continually expanding its sphere
of influence is the most effective hegemonic strategy ever created. By destroying
meaning and any semblance of dialogue related to complex subjects that should resist
reductionist, hyper-real logic if the world of simulation had not invaded every facet of
contemporary life, the media ensures that “there is nothing outside of their operational
logics” (Abbinnett 69). Given that the real is nowhere to be found in the ubiquitous,
symbolic universe of which the media constitutes a vital element, Motss’s task is not
that difficult to achieve since the public unknowingly consumes images that are
grounded in hyper-reality every waking moment.
The signs that make up the integral reality of war are predicated upon “simplistic
moral narratives of good versus evil” based on binary logic (Hammond 313). In order for
the public to support his fictitious war on terror, Motss enshrouds the artifice of his
Hollywood pageant with thick, hegemonic layers of propaganda. The symbolic
importance of Motss’s spectacle transcends the significance of the non-events
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