Simulacral Democracy

One theorist that keeps coming up in our readings is Baudrillaud.  His readings of the "simulacra" of postmodern experience are digested and put into crash course form here: http://www.cla.purdue.edu/english/theory/postmodernism/modules/baudrillardsimulation.html

A recent story of democracy advocates in Burma watching episodes of the West Wing to learn about democracy seems a rather interesting point of discussion in this light.  Can real lessons be gleaned from an entertainment commodity?  There are also issues of access to information and materials in repressive regimes.  More on this here:

http://blogs.wsj.com/searealtime/2012/09/20/previously-on-the-west-wing-democracy-101-for-myanmar/

For those of you who are too young to have watched the show, it's the reason for the endless walk-and-talk scenes in shows like House.