Mechanical, electrical, and virtual reproduction become the standards of the Real, and the Real disappears because all that remains are simulations. Our Reality is already reproducible and reproduced – our own lives are ones that have already been lived.
He proposes we are already living in a world with eroded meta-narratives, a world without Good and Evil. In describing the transition in our belief systems, he notes that the move to toleration is a move away from modernity. We tolerate more meanings of Good and Evil because we are unsure of their definitions and therefore cannot place blame on any group or individual.
Moving away from the striation, the clear lines of distinction that characterize modernity, the boundaries between Good and Evil merge and erode one another. Baudrillard is describing our move toward smoothness. We have not yet arrived -- a total breakdown of distinction, pure smoothness, would be a human apocalypse. But getting close could be fun.
