The Spirit of Terrorism, New Revised Edition [Paperback]

Jean Baudrillard (Author), Chris Turner (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2003

Until September 11 we had had no symbolic event on a world scale that marked a setback for globalization itself.

Baudrillard sees the power of the terrorists as lying in the symbolism of slaughter – not merely the reality of death, but in a sacrifice that challenges the whole system. Where previously the old revolutionary sought to conduct a struggle between real forces in the context of ideology and politics, the new terrorist mounts a powerful symbolic challenge which, when combined with high-tech resources, constitutes an unprecedented assault on an over-sophisticated and vulnerable West. This new edition is up-dated with the essays 'Hypotheses on Terrorism' and 'Violence of the Global'.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“What he calls the 'spirit of terrorism' is the waking nightmare of fantasy become reality, which means that in the West, we are all, whether of the right or left, now engaged in a murderous game, the rules of which are constantly being changed, not according to the globalized strategies of the western powers, but according to the inscrutable, ultimately unknowable, demands of 'the enemy'. ... Baudrillard ... offers a sober and hard-headed commentary on the events of September 11 and their aftermath. Significantly, there is no trace of the specious and pretensious nihilism that is so often claimed as the hallmark of his thinking. Rather, he offers a clear analysis of the terrible miscalculations in the West that have brought us to this point, and which seem to offer us no way back from the spectral 'war on terrorism'.” (New Statesman )

“… philosophical perfection. Each book [in the Verso series of 9-11] offers powerful and highly readable commentary that whirlwinds around the specter of the towers, and together the texts raise an indelibly valuable dialogue where many are still afraid to step. Unbreakable, these volumes are filled with extraordinary ideas and ideals that slowly piece together from one poetic line to the next.” (XLR8R Magazine )

“First prize for cerebral coldbloodedness goes to French philosopher Jean Baudrillard. ... It takes a rare, demonic genius to brush off the slaughter of thousands on the grounds that they were suffering from severe ennui brought about by boring modern architecture.” (New York Times Book Review )

About the Author

Jean Baudrillard (1929-2007) began teaching sociology at the Université de Paris-X in 1966. He retired from academia in 1987 to write books and travel until his death in 2007. His many works include Simulations and Simulacra, America, The Perfect Crime, The System of Objects, Passwords, The Transparency of Evil, The Spirit of Terrorism, and Fragments, among others.

Product Details

• Paperback: 120 pages
• Publisher: Verso (October 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1859844480
• ISBN-13: 978-1859844489
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 4.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #264,321 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "There's an end to all your talk about the virtual-this is something real!" (p.28), January 26, 2008

By 

M. Ruiz "Lost Inner Space" (Nu-Jork, Ju-Es-Ay) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Spirit of Terrorism, New Revised Edition (Paperback)

The violence of the real, or the reality of violence is the only thing power understands. Confronted with suicides, the system (indeed any system) begins to mimic suicide, ultimately committing itself to its own suicide.
I won't pretend to understand all of this great writer's words. Partly because my understanding of French is limited. Partly because I have only read a translation. And lastly because I have been fed oh so many Americanisms.
This is a good intro into exploring possible interpretations and misunderstandings embedded in our conceptions of the "World". Reading it has helped me to begin to demystify the political concept of Terrorism, especially its connotations within the virtual world of media discourse.
"To the point that the idea of freedom, a new and recent idea, is already fading from minds and mores, and liberal globalization is coming about in precisely the opposite form-a police state globalization, a total control, a terror based on 'law and order' measures. Deregulation ends up in a maximum of constraints and restrictions, akin to those of a fundamentalist society." (p.32 from the unrevised edition)
I would also recommend "The Transparency of Evil: Essays on Extreme Phenomenon" (1993) by Jean Baudrillard.

29 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars America, March 24, 2004

By 

steve - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Spirit of Terrorism, New Revised Edition (Paperback)

Well, this is a very short book. If you arte not familiar with Baudrillard's academic social theory and philosophical works, much of the commentary may come across as superficial, cynical or just plain odd. The unreferenced paraphrasal of Clauschwitz's formula (earlier inverted by Foucault), the references to 'symbols' and death as 'sacrifice'; none of this will make any sense unless you have read Symbolic Exchange and Death, or Signs and Simulations, and like those english journos who reviewed 'The Gulf War did not take place' with similar ignorance, if you take it only at that level you will miss the whole point, and look like a stupid arse.

Sacrifice referes to his thesis in symbolic exchange and death that the only resistance to the 'system' is suicide, building on the third volume of Marx's Capital; so that dead labour now outweighs living labour, we all live in a world of death, the only refusal is to stop the system killin us.

As the editor of the edition of 'The Gulf war did not take place' that I read showed; many people criticsed Baudrillard comparing him to a classical 'enlightenment' thinker like Noam Chomsky. But this edition then had a quote by Chomsky in the intro where he said it wasn't a 'war' because that conventionally meant two sides fighting against each other. Similarly, Baudrillard's point that we have all imagined the collapse of american empire; in a couple of different places in his work on US foreign policy Chomsky talks about the war mongers in Vietnam and what they said about the 'VC', hypothesising what they would have done if the VC had launched attacks in downtown New York.

Besides which, why should Baudrillard have to explain himself to you in any case? If we can't see through the oxymoronism of a 'War on Terrorism' we deserve to blown up in densly populated city centres like the sheep we are.

5.0 out of 5 stars Refreshing analysis of 9/11, January 20, 2011

By 

A. Sophocleous (Ann Arbor, MI United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Spirit of Terrorism, New Revised Edition (Paperback)

Baudrillard speaks both as a Westerner, yet outside of the discourse most Americans would be familiar with (Good vs Evil, Us vs Them, Democracy vs Funamentalism, Christians vs Muslims, "they hate us because we are free", etc). For those who only know these views, his ideas may come as a shock; for those who with to think freely (outside what others say we must think), his ideas are a breath of fresh air. The style of the book is accessible for those unfamiliar with Baudrillardian ideas/concepts, and in fact could be a way in to understanding what he means when he speaks of "simulation". A great read!