Utopia Achieved

"lets all celebrate now. Americans have the proper theory/practice balance--not conceptualizing reality but realizing concepts..."

Do you agree? Yes I do. After reading Jean Baudrillards Utopia Achieved, I began to see America in a way that is not as apple pie as I have been culutred to think. It was a hard lump to digest to be sure, but one that has to be swallowed to move forward. (I know that totally makes sense right)
I began to see America as a whole entity rather than an enormous group of individuals...although this is America's greatest gift to begin with. The promise of freedom and individuality, one can choose to do or be anything, just as long as its the best mind you. This is just what Baudrillard is trying to illustrate. He is painting the picture of two worlds. One old and one new. The old is confined by it's own history in trying to realize the concepts that it has come to realize through centuries of trial and error. This other world is new, and not only has achieved many of these old concepts, but has surpassed them and now strives only to make it last indefinitely.

I like to think of America as an Idea machine. Constantly turning out, not new products, but dreams, hopes, and wishes. America is the land of oppurtunity because it is the land of want. It is a place where anyone can go to find what they are looking for. It is a place where everyone is bound by societies image rather than by society itself. A billboard along a highway says more to us than the daily newspaper calling to us about the distant affais of the old world and it's strife. America is competition. I want more than you.