The Mirror of Production
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The Mirror of Production is a 1973 book by Jean Baudrillard. It is a systematic critique of Marxism. Baudrillard's thesis is that Marx’s theory of historical materialism is too rooted in assumptions of political economy to provide a framework for radical action. The fault of Marxism is not its revolutionary goals but the failure of historical materialism to attain its ends.
Baudrillard states that Marx’s critique of political economy was based on forms of production and labour. Marx did not transcend political economy but merely saw its reverse or its “mirror” side. Marxism merely strengthens political economy’s basic propositions. In Baudrillard’s words, “it convinces men that they are alienated by the sale of their labour power; hence it censors the much more radical hypothesis that they do not have to be the labour power.” The mirror of production is the only means through which social activity is intelligible. Baudrillard proposes to liberate workers from their "labour value" and think in terms other than production. The book is a semiotic critique of the political economy of the sign.
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- Jean Baudrillard, The Mirror of Production, trans. Mark Poster (New York: Telos Press, 1975)
