Reddit reviews Introducing Baudrillard

I recall finding this helpful. Not that I managed to make it completely through the For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign. I do remember reading his book America. This was in the late 90s. It has a kind of perfect end of history narrative that fit well with this certain moment at the end of the 90s.

Anyway.. I agree and disagree with what I understand to be Baudrillard's thesis (in Political Economy of the Sign). He is all obsessed about the act of consumption and the social meaning of these items we consume. Which is interesting and valid. But he seems to suggest that consumption not production is what is important, in a revolutionary sense. He gets hung up on this idea that we consume things that fulfill needs we don't really have. And because of this it invalidates Marx's theory. I believe it comes from a rather attenuated maybe kind of orthodox reading of Marx's theory in Capital. I would quibble a bit that these are not meeting some need. And Marx never really talks about where our needs come from. But he is clear enough they go beyond food and shelter. But if you think about the labor that goes into the production of needs and desire as every bit as much part of the production process there is no problem.