The Cronenberg Videodrome and the Post-Modern ConditionIn years past, when an artist or philosopher criticized the reality of the world, it was always assumed that he There was a reality to criticize. However, postmodernity has presented these people with a terrifying new challenge: a world that has literally been so overtaken by technology that the important questions of human existence no longer consist of finding answers to questions such as " Why were we born to suffer? and die?" but simply by trying to distinguish the real from the unreal, which, for postmodern man, is not an esoteric philosophical speculation, but an everyday practical question. The postmodern trajectory is the one that leaves humans fighting not to maintain political supremacy or to break the chains of injustice, but simply to maintain their identity as real beings in the face of technology that blurs the boundaries between man and mechanics, humanity and machine, reality and image This struggle seems to be a losing battle for humanity, because every day the inventions supposed to bring us pleasure and increase our free time dehumanize us by appropriating a part of our identity each time. passing moment. Postmodern social theorist Jean Baudrillard posits that today's world is an endless "virtual apocalypse" of reality yielding to the hyperreal - a reality defined not as what actually is. but rather that which can be simulated, reproduced or Xeroxed. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and this has never been more true than in the postmodern world, where the only viable strategy left is to take up the weapons of technology and use them to our advantage, in a last ditch attempt. to preserve our humanity. by somehow finding meaning in the hallucinatory, cybernetic, hyper-realistic spectacle that is the postmodern condition. Of all the possible means of gaining an understanding of our nature and the nature of the world that is necessary to survive technology's siege on reality, few media are as powerful as cinema (after all, film constitutes a unique, accessible and intense vehicle of ideas), and few filmmakers are as adept at dissecting the concept of post-modernity as Canadian author David Cronenberg. In an age where every passing moment constitutes a further blurring of the boundary between reality and image, this prophetic director clarifies, traverses and captures the very essence of post-modernity, through masterfully crafted cinematic pieces that bring technology, obsession and carnal together and pit them against each other in the horrible battlefield of the mind, each fighting for control of the human psyche.