iPad, iPod, and tablet images, is there any reprieve from the ubiquity of these signs that
have been carefully packaged for our consumption?
Reminding the somewhat naïve staffer that the hegemonic tool of proliferation
has been used against the public many times in the past, Brean elucidates that our
defenses are weak because they are constantly being overloaded by more information
that we can efficiently process. In the pervasive realm of simulation that surrounds us
from all sides, our capacity for critical reflection is greatly diminished. For this reason, no
one questions the validity of the signs that we receive in ‘real-time.’ Nonetheless, Brean
realizes that his fake Albanian war, like all other creative fictions transmitted through
hyper-real mediums, hinges upon “the constant flow of war coverage” (Walton 17). The
complete artifice of their fictitious conflict will never be exposed as long as its iconic
images are continually transmitted everywhere through all possible channels. Yet,
Brean is also cognizant that this orchestrated campaign of misinformation can never be
silenced or fail to saturate misguided patriotic citizens in their homes, workplaces, or
shopping centers.
As Baudrillard underscores in The Transparency of Evil, “for it to be ‘good’
communication it must take place fast-there is no time for silence. Silence is banished
from our screens; it has no place in communication. Media images […] never fall silent:
images and messages must follow one upon the other without interruption” (14). In Wag
the Dog, every metonymical sign mirrors a larger image of a country whose alleged duty
it is to defend freedom and human dignity both domestically and abroad. In other words,
this endless barrage of misinformation is part of a larger narrative with which the
American public identifies. Elucidating that semiotic proliferation always follows a script,
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