Postmodernism and the Impact on Critical Thinking

I experienced a brief conversation today that got me to thinking. Baudrillard wrote in Simulacra and Simulation that, essentially, symbolism has replaced fact in the postmodern age - namely, that the symbolism created by present culture and media shape our perception of reality; regardless of factual basis. Like the old saying, if you repeat something often enough, you start to believe it. A couple of things got me to thinking along this line - which is really a tangent for the point of this writing. I think one of the best examples of this are slogans. They are blasted out to a consumer audience with such frequency that, eventually, that audience starts parroting those phrases right back out, but in a larger context, and sometimes, as original thought (once removed from the originating source).

In my conversation earlier today, one person said two things that later, considered through the lens of critical thought, don't really make much sense at all. The first statement that got me to thinking was one we've all heard a million times: "Life is short." We've heard it so frequently, often associated with a carpe diem mentality, that we've accepted it as 'fact'. But consider what that phrase is saying......your, mine, our lives are short. That simply isn't true. Can you think of anything else you'll do that's longer?

The second comment was regarding a recent performance by Bruce Springsteen, covering a Pete Seeger song. I forgot the song, but it has some politically aspiring commentary. My conversant said that musicians shouldn't discuss politics in their songs, that fans just want good songs to sing along to (I suppose "If I Had a Hammer is prohibited in my coworker's musical lexicon). Which got me to thinking....taking this universal syllogism one step further, one could assume then that businessmen shouldn't discuss music; it's not their forte. Unless they're musician/businessmen, and then, I suppose, the world of topics is open to them.

Which brings me back to the simulacra and critical thinking point. I wonder, if we really took the time to consider it, how much in our daily lives is purely constructed symbolism passing itself off - with our perpetuation, of course - as fact? I'm almost afraid to know.