It's a delusion, it's a game

Deborah Solomon interviews Jean Baudrillard in the NYT. You couldn't make it up. Some gems:

All of our values are simulated. What is freedom? We have a choice between buying one car or buying another car? It's a simulation of freedom.

Hey, he's been reading our Maddy! More:

So you don't think that the U.S. invaded Iraq to spread freedom?

What we want is to put the rest of the world on the same level of masquerade and parody that we are on, to put the rest of the world into simulation, so all the world becomes total artifice and then we are all-powerful. It's a game.
.....
France is a byproduct of American culture. We are all in this; we are globalized. When Jacques Chirac says, "No!" to Bush about the Iraq war, it's a delusion...
.....
Were you a friend of Susan Sontag?

We saw each other from time to time, but the last time, it was terrible. She came to a conference in Toronto and blasted me for having denied that reality exists.

Now, that is truly terrible. And then here's a final bit of self-deprecating irony:

Some here feel that the study of the humanities at our universities has been damaged by the incursion of deconstruction and other French theories.

That was the gift of the French. They gave Americans a language they did not need. It was like the Statue of Liberty. Nobody needs French theory.

Just because it's ironic, it doesn't mean it ain't true. Oh, and do treat yourself to a look at the accompanying picture. (Via The Walrus.)