Over-Proximity of All Things

Definition

Ours is a new form of schizophrenia, says Baudrillard. The emergence of an immanent promiscuity and the perpetual interconnection of all information and communication networks leads to a state of terror which is characteristic of the schizophrenic, that of an over-proximity of all things. In spite of himself the schizophrenic is open to everything and lives in the most extreme confusion. He is the obscene victim of the world’s obscenity. The schizophrenic is not, as generally claimed, characterized by his loss of touch with reality, but by the absolute proximity to and total instantaneousness with things, this overexposure to the transparency of the world.