Having constructed a conceptualisation of the mind and its connection to its surroundings as well as having painted a picture of the present environment it finds itself in, the psychological possibility of critique remains to be examined. It is easy to state that the mind is shaped wholly by a combination of neurophysical parameters and social experience, but the very fact that one feels so resistant to this idea shows the merits of deeper examination. Consciousness rebels against the notion that its limits can be so circumscribed and the artistic, cultural and philosophical labour of our species is a record of our attempted transcendence of such limits. The question is also of the utmost political importance. If one cannot adequately think outside the socio-political matrix into which one is born, we are left with little alternative but passive acceptance or partial critique.

Beginning with the following discussion of the possibilities for critique on the conscious level, the next two chapters will, therefore, attempt to begin sketching how, given the foregoing material, we can actually attempt to think differently.

The potential of the personal conscious

A useful starting point in this regard is the work of Jean Baudrillard, both in terms of his analysis of society and in the perceived negativity of his conclusions for resistance. Baudrillard's thought moved from Marxism in the late sixties to a gradually more semiological conceptualisation of consumer society.