A review by neoludification
The Intelligence of Evil: Or, the Lucidity Pact by Jean Baudrillard

slow-paced

4.5

Are events still possible when what we used to know as 'reality' is being replaced by its virtual double? How can neoliberal globalization be resisted when it is able to absorb all negativity? What if liberation doesn't counteract this system, but is fundamentally complicit with it? These are some of the questions that animate Baudrillard's late work, and they all come together beautifully in The Intelligence of Evil. He is at his strongest when he is writing theory-fiction, in which he hypothesizes a symbolic universe of duality and reversibility that the capitalist hegemony seeks to eliminate but could never abolish completely. There are many possible objections to this hypothesis and its theoretical underpinnings and consequences, many of which I share, but there is also something so seductive about Baudrillard's thought that I cannot bring myself to dismiss it entirely. Beyond his reactionary tendencies, his obvious blind spots and his unwillingness to offer any perspective for the renewal of left-wing politics, Baudrillard strikes a chord with me in a very visceral way. It is not just concepts and thinkers that get ensnared in his theoretical trap and sent spinning out of control; the same happens to his readers.

The book is prefaced by a quick and rather efficient introduction by Chris Turner, to both the book and Baudrillard's oeuvre at large. This makes The Intelligence of Evil a good starting point for newcomers, alongside Forget Foucault (Semiotexte, 1987/2008) and The Spirit of Terrorism (Verso, 2002).