The only weapon of power, its only strategy against this defection, is to reinject the real and the referential everywhere, to persuade us of the reality of the social, of the gravity of the economy and the finalities of production.

Jean Baudrillard
About This Quote

Michel Foucault was talking about power and the importance of reinjecting the real and the referential everywhere. The real and the referential are related concepts. The real is that which exists outside of our own perception. It can be anything from a book to a chair to a person.

The referential is what is used to describe or communicate with something. A book can be referred to as “a book” but it is also called "a piece of paper" or "a codex." By referring to it as a book we make it easier for us to understand and we create a context for ourselves. We might even think of the book as a thing and not as a thing with words on it.

When we refer to something we make it more understandable and we make ourselves more aware of what that thing is.

Source: Simulacra And Simulation

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