A Critical Analysis Of “the End Of Production” Of Jean Baudrillard

Production,which is the great event in the human world,is the basis of all other activities.Human beings have created huge wealth through production and changed the world greatly.However,since the capitalist world economic crisis in 1929,especially after the Second World War,the western developed countries have appeared a lot of different new changes in the fields of economy,politic,culture and others.Baudrillard had began to pay attention to these new changes since the 1960 s,he started the research from object and adopted a new method which was different from the Marx doctrine.he formed his own theory system from the perspective of semiotics.He attributed these new changes to the end of production in western society.It has caused a chain reaction in other areas,for example,reproduction in the field of production,the symbolic consumption in the consume activities,the end of subjectivity,everyone is in the model of simulation that is controlled by the system.He declared the end of an era,and followed with another era.As a result,he believed that Marx’s critique of the political economy has been out of date.He attempted to adopt a more radical criticism to criticize the capitalist society.He finally went to the opposite of Marx and began a comprehensive critique to Marx.This thesis is based on five works of Baudrillard,which is named as The System of Objects,The Consumer Society,For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign,The Mirror of Production and Symbolic Exchange and Death.It begins with the symbolic exchange and recurs the process of “the end of production”from the theoretical and practical level,as well as its significant impact on the capitalist society.The author thinks that the critique demonstrates his unique theoretical perspective.But he exaggerated the new changes in the western developed society,thus he denied the contribution of Marx in the critique of capitalism.This is a misreading of Marxism.Therefore,this thesis raises doubts about his criticism and denies some of his radical ideas in the chapter four.First of all,he declared“the end of production”that was based on the end of use value,surplus value and production purpose.This thesis responds to him one by one.The use value of commodity is the premise of a exchange can be carried out.A good can not realize its exchange value even if there are no more than symbol value.Capitalist does not give up the pursuit of surplus value,they just change the way of exploitation which looks like more civilized than before.And the producers are being cheated and assimilated by this civilization.Machine is a double-edged sword that is convenient for people,but also caused the suppression to people.But finally,it is still the product of human and it is only a kind of super extension of human normal power.Secondly,he concluded that the subject who was engaged in production did not exist.There is no doubt that people are really controlled by an invisible chain and they drunk in a desire and eager to meet it.But he exaggerated the suppression.People realize their own status only when they meet their own needs.At the same time,one can get freedom through the violent death against the rules,but only means that there is no real meaning.Thirdly,let us talk about the unlimited rule of the system.Marx was also aware of the various objective factors in the development of society.But with the development of forces an relations of production,human beings will enter the Communist society and realize the all-round advancement.Only in that time,these factors are no longer control and restrict people,but are controlled by human beings.