Report On The Construction Of Situations

I was listening to an interesting discussion on the radio the other day.
It was about how Paris was one of the most visited cities in the world but, although this brings in a lot of money, it stops the city from developing as no-one wants to change anything that might deter tourists from visiting. It becomes a city in aspic.
And the danger here is that real life drains away. The spectacle takes over.
This is true of many major urban tourist destinations. They become just a mass of shops and restaurants catering to tourists. And for many of the latter, the point of the visit is now to show that one has been to the city rather than the being there itself. There is no real engagement with the surroundings. A quick photograph next to the Eiffel Tower or Big Ben or the Statue of Liberty and seen it, been there, done that…
Baudrillard said that we are now living in a society of re-production and not production.
I agree. And I do it myself. Especially when it comes to re-producing other people's ideas...