Virtualism, Simulacra, Cultural Capital, ..and the Environment?

This week I wanted to do a reactionary post because in our discussions we focused on social contributors to environmental problems  but I had trouble articulating to myself the underlying structures that allow this set up to happen.

This idea of virtualism, in which the model is created and reality conforms to the model, reminded me of Baudrillard’s simulacra. My basic understanding of his ideas is that everything in our lives is mediated through signs. These are culturally constructed. We do not have an experience or interaction with some objective reality, our very senses are mediated. There are various relationships between “the original” or reality and the sign or simulacra. This virtualism would be of the kind where it claims to represent a reality that doesn’t actually exist. (This is in contrast to a faithful copy or pure simulation that makes no claim to reality ¹).

This ties into story telling. Previously we talked about story telling in class and how it is through stories that people make meanings in their lives. However, at what level do people acknowledge that stories themselves are fictions, even those that are “faithful copies” of the truth? I think of an acquaintance I know that spins tall tales just for the sake of gaining social capital. He tells unlikely (and sometimes physically impossible) stories in order to awe people and be positively regarded. These stories, much like (or maybe unlike) the story that Deans Beans told, are clearly of this type that claim to be true but represent no reality.  How do these contrast with the stories that anthropologists tell that are based on the very realities they have lived and are trying to portray?

It feels kind of contradictory because it seems like a simple matter of who is telling the “truth” but there isn’t a Truth to be told. Instead, I view all of these people as social actors with goals that they are trying to achieve. Whether it preserving tradition through storytelling, changing minds, inspiring people, slandering your opponent, or achieving social capital, oftentimes the “reality” is irrelevant and it is the power of the story that holds importance. An important question to ask is who gets to tell these stories?

I have done not much research on the relationship between stories and identity but I can imagine that they are very important. At least in American culture, a major part of who we are is who we proclaim to be. Our actions of course factor in but stories can be so convincing, actions can be overlooked (e.g. Fair Trade Coffee). In my own life, even the stories of entirely fictional characters  have had an impact on who I am as a person. Because even if these stories are obviously not trying to represent the reality that I live in, they do seem representative of some Truth in humanness. I think much in the same way, even if people do acknowledge that the stories that marketers sell us are false, that there must be some grain of truth (and whichever grain that is is acceptable enough). So then we get to consumerism. The general idea is that whether we fully buy into the stories behind the brand, we plaster ourselves with these signs by purchasing them and wearing them and putting them in our homes. That somehow Jif is a better peanut butter than off-brand because “choosy moms choose jif.” (I don’t even want to delve into how inundated we are with commercials and advertisements… T_T) You then become the type of person who does or does not buy organic food.

This echoes  a discussion I had in another class about Bourdieu’s taste and cultural capital. The main point to pull from it is this idea that (back when CDS used to exist) you could look at someone’s CD collection and see what kind of person they are. That by looking at this collection or one facet of their identity (the music that they have purchased and displayed) you could reliably predict a whole lot about them. Or least you felt like you could. Of course these days we don’t have CDs, and arguably (I’m probably biased here) identities are more complex these days, there are still these simulacra that we buy into to represent ourselves in this consumer culture. The easiest example of course is clothing and fashion but I still think back to an experience that I had with one of my friends. (In my relating of this story I think you guys will get the point.)

So to start with Sergio is an artist. We often go shopping together because that is something he likes to do and I allow myself to be dragged along. However, it’s not big chain stores we go to, it’s usually small, locally owned shops and antique stores. He has an affinity for things that are old and vintage and things that are futuristic (I’m pretty sure he’s a Trekkie). And like me, has a tendency for an eclectic style, especially when it comes to home decor. In fashion, he wears suspenders and bow ties, flannel print and striped shirts,  derby hats or a fedora, etc. in essence, he is a hipster. This was epitomized the day we went into a music store. He insisted on looking through the records. I of course, being the wonderful kind of friend that I am, pointed out the lack of functioning (he claims it works well enough) record players in house and how much easier it is to just download all of these songs online and listen to them on your computer/phone/ipod/whatever. But to him, the record is important because there is a “different” sound quality and that experiencing music through that medium somehow puts him closer to that time period. Whether or not time travel through music is actually possible, this narrative that he tells himself (and that I reject) creates two identities. He is the type of person that goes out of his way to buy records (your mind can fill in the blanks) and I am not.

So what does my “hipster” friend have to do with environmental issues? Like we’ve talked about before, in dealing with environmental issues we have to deal with people’s conceptions about the environment and nature. Not only that, but we have to deal with their conceptions of self. For us here in America and in other consumer cultures, that means an identity that is more and more constructed by the simulacra that we purchase. Simulacra that are constructed through stories by people that we listen to. This leads me back to a question I asked above but didn’t intend to answer in this post and that is, who gets to tell these stories and whose stories get to be heard?

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¹ But in that very process claims that there is a reality that doesn’t actually exist.