#erica

Whence the possibility of an ideological analysis of Disneyland (L. Marin did it very well in Utopiques, jeux d'espace [Utopias, play of space]): digest of the American way of life, panegyric of American values, idealized transposition of a contradictory reality. Certainly. But this masks something else and this "ideological" blanket functions as a cover for a simulation of the third order: Disneyland exists in order to hide that it is the "real" country, all of "real" America that is Disneyland (a bit like prisons are there to hide that it is the social in its entirety, in its banal omnipresence, that is carceral). Disneyland is presented as imaginary in order to make us believe that the rest is real, whereas all of Los Angeles and the America that surrounds it are no longer real, but belong to the hyperreal order and to the order of simulation. It is no longer a question of a false representation of reality (ideology) but of concealing the fact that the real is no longer real, and thus of saving the reality principle. ↗

— Jean Baudrillard

#disneyland #simulacra #simulation #life

Why, I ask, isn't it possible that advertising as a whole is a fantastic fraud, presenting an image of America taken seriously by no one, least of all by the advertising men who create it? ↗

— David Riesman

#america #ask #create #fantastic #fraud

American POWs from the last Iraq war, who were held prisoner and tortured by Iraq, are now being prevented by our government from suing the Iraqis who tortured them. ↗

— Dana Rohrabacher

#being #government #held #iraq #iraq war

I don't know anything more piggish - I don't know anything more un-American than saying, 'Oh, I'm worried about my own little handout or my own little program or my own little economy and we'll kick this can down the road and let some future generation deal with it.' ↗

— Todd Rokita

#anything #deal #down #down the road #economy

We have revenue coming in. We can pay our interest payments. And then we can prioritize what government programs that have been given to the American people that are unsustainable promises that have been made by reckless politicians that can't possibly be sustained. We can determine which one of those if any we need to keep. ↗

— Todd Rokita

#american people #any #been #coming #determine

Even the most jingoistic person would have to admit that even American cultural music comes from Europe. That's what classical music is, real European music. ↗

— Sonny Rollins

#american #classical #classical music #comes #cultural

I'm not sure if men really understand this, but I don't think there's a woman in America who really expects her life to be easy. In our own ways, we all know better! ↗

— Ann Romney

#better #easy #expects #her #i

Making duplicate copies and computer printouts of things no one wanted even one of in the first place is giving America a new sense of purpose. ↗

— Andy Rooney

#america #computer #copies #duplicate #even

We've advanced in the construction of a true free-trade area across South America... What's needed now is less rhetoric and more action. ↗

— Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva

#action #advanced #america #area #construction

I don't believe that the American dream should be reserved for those who are born into the elite or somehow have been given an advantage over others. My growing-up experience is probably the most important thing that guides my priorities and my work today. ↗

— Ken Salazar

#american #american dream #been #believe #born