Educational Studies

A Journal of the American Educational Studies Association

ISSN: 0013-1946 (Print) 1532-6993 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/heds20

The Transparency of Evil in The Leftovers and its

Implications for Student (Dis)engagement
Cathryn van Kessel
To cite this article: Cathryn van Kessel (2016) The Transparency of Evil in The Leftovers
and its Implications for Student (Dis)engagement, Educational Studies, 52:1, 51-67, DOI:
10.1080/00131946.2015.1120206
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00131946.2015.1120206

Published online: 03 Feb 2016.

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EDUCATIONAL STUDIES, 52(1), 5167, 2016

C American Educational Studies Association
Copyright 
ISSN: 0013-1946 print / 1532-6993 online
DOI: 10.1080/00131946.2015.1120206

The Transparency of Evil in The Leftovers and its

Implications for Student (Dis)engagement
Cathryn van Kessel
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University of Alberta
The HBO series, The Leftovers, provides a thought-provoking platform for discussing Baudrillards
conceptualization of evil and the implications for contemporary pedagogical discourse about student
(dis)engagement. The dystopic scenario of 2% of the worlds population suddenly disappearing might
help us rethink our own society, including education. Baudrillard distinguishes between a creative
Evil force that can be positive or negative in its outcome and a moral evil seen as wholly negative. By
examining the situation created by the modern confusion of evil and misfortune, it becomes apparent
that disengagement moves beyond personal characteristics. Unveiling such underlying issues allows
for a reconceptualization of youth at risk, and thus has repercussions for the explanation of disengaged
youth in our classrooms.

The discourse of student (dis)engagement has had a limited focus that assumes that there is
a problem that can be fixed merely by tweaking the current system, although that specific
problem has been variously defined as academic, behavioural, psychological, institutional, or
social. Although some or all of these may indeed be factors, engaging with Baudrillards ideas of
hyperreality and evil provide an opportunity to rethink these assumptions. Seemingly disengaged
students may not be solely the result of their own personal failings (or those of their teachers) and
the systemic issues that plague our society, such as bigotry. Further underlying issues surrounding
the meaning of reality (or lack thereof) may also be in play. Our assumptions about supposedly atrisk youth need to move beyond only discussions about personal responsibility into a postmodern
condition of uncertainty and terror. Engaging with media like the television series, The Leftovers,
provides a way to work through this issue. Baudrillards ideas provide another way of framing what
the problem might be and he does this with radical thought that challenges common sensibilities.
Although personal and social factors may impact (dis)engagement, there are also repercussions
stemming from (mis)conceptions about reality.

Correspondence should be addressed to Cathryn van Kessel, University of Alberta, Secondary Education, 551
Education South, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2G5, Canada. E-mail: vankesse@ualberta.ca

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EDUCATION AND YOUTH (DIS)ENGAGEMENT

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At the time this article was written, a Google search listed over 438,000 results for the phrase
youth disengagement in education, including scholarly and government documents, as well
as weblogs and newspaper articles. This issue is one in contemporary minds, yet one that is
segregated to the domains of individual responsibility, institutional failure, or socio-economic
inequity. Disengagement as an appropriate response to societys general state of affairs (e.g.,
todays hyperreal world) is not considered. The word disengagement, in its very essence, is
conceptualized negatively:
It is by implication a failure to act, an absence of exercise of will, or at extremes a default condition
of passivity or indolence in which personal responsibility is abrogated . . . [and the effect is] to
individualise and pathologise the condition of non-participation. (Fergusson, 2013, p. 21)

Blondal and Adalbjarnardottir (2012) examined individual behavior and emotional characteristics
such as poor conduct in schools, apparent academic disinterest, and lack of identification with
school. Such discourse has recently expanded beyond education into the economic sphere and
is now rife in relation to young people, unemployment and non-participation in education and
training (Fergusson, 2013, p. 13). In educational research, scholars have made clear the link
between disengagement and unemployment after leaving compulsory school. This issue is often
framed in terms of its cost to society (e.g., Pacheco & Dye, 2013). DeLuca et al. (2010) researched
disengaged, at-risk youth fresh into the workplace and their experiences. The justification for this
research is rooted in the fear of a growing youth employment crisis and its potentially disastrous
implications for even strong economies like Canadas (DeLuca et al., 2010, p. 305). This study
and others like it (e.g., DeLuca et al., 2015) have called for increased vocational (work-based)
schooling.
Some scholars prefer to frame the issue of disengagement as a failure (and engagement as
a success) of the institutioneither at the school or system level. Shernoff (2013) defined engagement as the heightened, simultaneous experience of concentration, interest, and enjoyment
in the task at hand and the ideal state usually takes the form of active attentiveness and problem solving or the fashioning of products that promotes learning and the development of new
skills (p. 12). McGraw (2011) aptly pointed to the aggressive institutional tendency of schools
for dividing and selecting, for noting and disregarding, as well as demands for conformity as
the source for disengagement (p. 105). Taking a more affirming route is Shernoff (2013), who
examined what administrators and teachers can do to create the optimal learning environments
for student engagement, noting the challenges of the many distractions in students lives (particularly social media and relationships) and a schooling system with a classroom experience
lacking in relevance and interpersonal connections. Wilson, Stemp, and McGinty (2011), also
assuming some institutional failure, reviewed the attributes of alternative programming aimed at
reengaging students.
Some educational research on student engagement has focused on particular groups, particularly those interpreted as underserved by the current system. Wallace and Chhuon (2014)
examined urban youth of color and their interpretations of instructional interactions as part of
the discourse on social reasons for declining enthusiasm for schooling. Effective teaching and
respectful relationships certainly have an impact on levels of student engagement, but there can be
more at play. Blondal and Adalbjarnardottir (2012) noted the increasing levels of disengagement

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among expected dropouts, particularly men of lower socio-economic status; Callingham (2013)
examined the ongoing lower achievement of students of low socio-economic and Indigenous
backgrounds in Australia as evidence the failure of top-down strategies for engagement. In a
Canadian context, Dei (2003) focused on the schooling experiences of Black and minoritized
youth and the role that politics plays in disengagement. Motti-Stefanidi, Masten, and Asendorpf
(2015) suggested that immigrant youths in middle school may disengage from school to shield
themselves from the prospect of academic failure. Such work helps to identify at-risk students,
focusing on their individual trajectories for success (or lack thereof) and systemic issues of
bigotry. Although such research is valuable and often has a well-intentioned desire to empower
students and create more inclusive education, if part of the issue is the general state of society,
the problem of (dis)engagement cannot be entirely solved in such a way.
Historically, research on student (dis)engagement has focused on improving academic achievement and cognitive abilities; classroom behavior; and emotional, social, and psychological harmony in the classroom community, assuming that there is a specific problem to be fixed (McFadden & Munns, 2010; Taylor & Parsons, 2011). Scholars have conceptualized these problems
at the individual, institutional, and societal level. None of these, however, have accounted for
students perceptions of the state of our world in theoretical or philosophical terms. One possible
engagement at this philosophical level is with Baudrillards ideas of Evil and hyperreality, a task
that can be facilitated through the medium of dystopian television.

HYPERREALITY, BAUDRILLARD, AND THE LEFTOVERS

Dystopian visions can help us (re)conceptualize our present situations, and this theoretical exploration examines the television series, The Leftovers (Lindelhof, 2014) through the lens of
Baudrillard, with a view to examining the problematic of student (dis)engagement (and the perception thereof) in the classroom. McLaren (1999) states: Learners must learn how to actively
make connections between their own lived conditions and being, and the making of reality that
has occurred to date (p. 51). But what is reality? In our contemporary times, we have the hyperreal, which is more real than real (Gane, 2010, p. 96). We have models or copies of what is
supposedly real, but there is no original for those models. According to Baudrillard (1983), the
successive phases of the image are as follows:
it [the image] is the reflection of a basic reality
it masks and perverts a basic reality
it masks the absence of a basic reality
it bears no relation to any reality whatever: it is its own pure simulacrum. (Baudrillard, 1983,
p. 11)
Once images no longer reflect basic reality, they correspond with three orders of simulacra: counterfeit, an imperfect copy of reality; production, a copy that is equivalent to the original reference
(and thus the copy can obliterate the original referent); and simulation, a pure simulacrum that
creates hyperreality (Baudrillard, 1983). Modern humans are living in a time of this final phase of
the image, the third order of simulacra: It is reality itself today that is hyperrealist (Baudrillard,
1983, p. 147). Thus, according to Baudrillard (1979/1990), harboring the idea that there is a real
world is, in itself, a cultural construction. Baudrillards understanding of simulacra is not that it

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is a copy of something real, but a truth in itself that obscures that the truth does not exist. One of
Baudrillards best examples of this is Disneyland. Many assume that Disneyland is a fiction based
upon a particular, idealized version of real life, but this theme park is no different than institutions
that are considered to be legitimately representative of ones situation; they all reinvent and
recycle lost dreams and illusions (Gane, 2010, p. 96). Ones supposed reality is just as fake as
Disneyland. With Hollywood actors like Reagan (with his Strategic Defense Initiative program
nicknamed Star Wars) as former presidents and the video game-esque nature of the media
coverage of the two Gulf Wars, it is easy to see the (con)fusion of science fiction and reality in
our supposedly real lives (Genosko, 1999, p. 79). Other examples of the degree of hyperreality
and simulation are advertisements, films, and products that tap into norms of masculinity and
femininity, while simultaneously creating those norms:
It is impossible, then, to separate a true or original form of masculinity or femininity from a false
or imaginary form. All postures of masculinity and femininity are simulacra, in Baudrillards
termscopies that refer to no original but that ceaselessly generate new copies. He calls the resulting
environmentone in which we can pinpoint no reference points for truly interpreting people, objects,
and situationsa hyperreal one. (Baudrillard & Lane, 2012, p. 287)

Our hyperreal world throws many of our comforting ideals about reality into disarray. Certain
dystopian works, such as The Leftovers television drama, highlight this discomfort. Baudrillard,
although an avid cinema attendee, has had many problems with the medium of television.
Baudrillard criticizes supposed reality TV shows and their synthetic sociality (Baudrillard,
1981/1994; Baudrillard, 2008, p. 39). Also, he is wary of television itself as he states: The
medium has swallowed the message. . . . And we are, indeed, seeing terrestrial and cable channels
and service proliferating while actual programme content is disappearing and melting away
(Baudrillard, 2000/2002, p. 188). This critique is salient, especially given the countless spinoffs and double-digit sequels to an already staggering amount of reality television. There are,
however, opportunities to explore our hyperreality with the tiny amount of programming with
tangible content, such as the The Leftovers.
The Home Box Office (HBO) series, The Leftovers, is loosely based upon a book of the
same name. Both the book and the TV series ponder how people might react to unexplained
and tragic events. Unlike other dystopian visions that entail near-complete ecological, political,
and/or social catastrophe, The Leftovers remains steadfastly in contemporary times, but hints that
society is teetering on the precipice of social catastrophe. On October 14, in a world similar
to the present time, the Sudden Departure occurred2% of the worlds population suddenly
disappeared without a trace, and some of those people vanished right in front of the eyes of
others. Although certain characters believe that the Departure was the Biblical Rapture, others do
not because the Departed were of various ages, backgrounds, and morality; i.e., it does not seem
that all the Departed were innocent and moral in a traditional Christian sense. Most of the plot
takes place 3 years after the Departure while people are struggling to cope with and understand
what happened, although there are flashbacks to before and during the Departure throughout the
first season. The series has been renewed for a second season, but at the time of writing this
article, only the first season has aired, with the season finale revealing the possibility of social
breakdown.

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DYSTOPIAN IMAGES AND BAUDRILLARD

Baudrillard (1998b) sees the world as being in a crisis of achieved utopia, although a minimal
utopia of survival instead of a maximal utopia of changing how life is lived (p. 6). The
Leftovers lays this crisis bare, and thus does not fall into the same trap as most science fictiona
reliance on technology and reimagining the future. There is a precedent for using cinema with
Baudrillards ideas. Merrin (2005) uses The Matrix to engage with Baudrillards ideas about
simulation, even though the film is troublesome in terms of its confusion between the virtual
real and hyperreal, as well as its problems connected to Baudrillards media theory; e.g., visual
hyperfidelity emphasized over content. The Leftovers does not fall into the same trap as The
Matrix regarding emphasis on special effects over content, and also better problematizes our
assumptions of reality because the sense of reality is not as tidily repaired (as least by the end
of the first season). Dystopian fiction can be instructive, useful, and even prescient, perhaps
even more so than utopian visions (Ayers, 2013, p. xii), and can help us deconstruct false truth
claims and open up questions as to how we can exist as entities on Earth. Key to this process is
exposing and removing a metanarrative without replacing it with a new one. Although The Matrix
comforts viewers that there is an underlying reality, The Leftovers does not. Although some of
the characters desperately try to figure out answers to what is going on, the youth portrayed in
the show do not. They seem to reject the idea of truth and the existence of certain knowledge.
They are not disengaged; rather, they refuse to take part in any attempts at a transformative
project.
Engaging in dystopian imagery is reliant upon, and disruptive to, the sedimented (and sedimenting) meanings produced through education policy discourse, that is, those meanings that
become commonsensical through their repetition and duration both logically and practically
(Carusi, 2013, p. 51-52). Dystopian imagery can also be used to rethink what teachers perceive
as reality in and out of the classroom. Science fiction is often an unbounded projection of the
real world of production, but is not qualitatively different from it (Baudrillard, 1981/1994, p.
122), and thus in denial of hyperreality. Some works of science fiction, however, try neither to
embrace our perceived reality or our alternative visions of it. Such works would leave behind
simplistic and nave attempts to imagine a fiction beyond our world and instead revitalize our
contemporary conceptualization of our world and situation. The Leftovers creates an upheaval
by its very ordinary natureit does not appear to be fictionthat provides viewers with an
opportunity to engage in rethinking in our hyperreal world instead of controlling predetermined
norms of thought and opinion. Much like the movie Fight Club (Fincher, 1999) engaged viewers
in thinking about our hyperreal world (Merrin, 2005), The Leftovers can provoke viewers to
deconstruct their situation, providing the sort of decentering situations that Baudrillard calls for,
those with the feeling of the real, of the banal, of lived experience, to reinvent the real as fiction
(Baudrillard, 1981/1994, p. 124).
Examining the contemporary state of hyperreality and the systemic issues that Baudrillard
(1990/1993) identifies as the transparency of evil provides a platform to deconstruct cultural issues that affect pedagogical concerns such as student (dis)engagement. Pinar (2006)
argues for the merging of cultural studies and curriculum studies to provide a springboard
for understanding educational experience in and out of the classroom. For this article, The
Leftovers (Lindelof, 2014) serves as this springboard as a dystopian vision to enrich the
discussion of student (dis)engagement. Because critical theory can easily fall into the trap
of its criticisms being neutralized by the dominant system, this article also makes the call

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for educators to embrace Baudrillards idea of radical thought along the lines of creative
Evil.

BAUDRILLARD AND EVIL

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According to Baudrillard (1990/1993), there have been troublesome developments in our notion
of evil. Our current paradigm is based upon autonomous individuals and the incorporation of
consumerist values (e.g., buying/acquiring more things), while progressing toward an antiseptic
society of boundless growth without evil:
We are now governed not so much by growth as by growths. Ours is a society founded on proliferation,
of growth which continues even though it cannot be measured against any clear goals. An excrescential
society whose development is uncontrollable, occurring without regard for self-definition, where
accumulation of effects goes hand in hand with the disappearance of causes. (Baudrillard, 1990/1993,
p. 34)

We increase in population, territory, use of natural resources, and accumulation of objects (including land and even people, in some cases). Meanwhile, we attempt to eradicate evil and create
an antiseptic society without misfortune. Such a cancerous society, with its unbridled sense of
progress regardless of the cost, can leave some feeling disengaged with society and questioning
what we are told is real (and thus what matters). In the realm of education, disengaged youth
or inadequate teachers are often seen as the problem instead of seeing underlying perceptions
of reality and society as the issue at hand. In other words, perhaps we do not always have a
disengagement problem; we might have a philosophical one linked to our ideas about evil and our
hyperreal state of affairs. To analyze this problem I will first summarize some of Baudrillards key
ideas about evil and superconducive events, then relate those ideas to The Leftovers (Lindelof,
2014) and the issue of student (dis)engagement in the classroom in contemporary society.
Evil, for Baudrillard, denotes something very particulara vital force of radical change that
can reinvigorate our world. In this sense, Evil is entwined with Good instead of its opposite, and
the outcomes of Evil can be positive or negative. This definition stands in marked contrast with the
more mundane conceptualization of evil as merely a bad or wholly negative outcome. Following
Baudrillard (1990/1993) and Pawlett (2014), I use Evil (with an upper case E) when it is discussed
in Baudrillards sense of a mythic, religious or symbolic sense, and then I use evil (with a lower
case e) to refer to the more generic and negative sense of moral evil. This distinction between Evil
and evil is important in Baudrillards philosophy as he views Good and Evil as inseparable, not as
rival forces; rather, it is only their abstractions into good and evil that they become oppositional as
moral categories, seeking to eradicate each other. Thus, the construction of good guys versus bad
guys is not the same as a creative and productive Evil. Symbolic Evil diverts and reverses, and is
intelligent . . . in the sense that it is implied automatically in every one of our acts (Baudrillard,
2004/2005, p. 160). Evil cannot be reduced to anything in particular, but, rather, is omnipresent.
As such, Evil understands us (rather than the other way around) and is a force for metamorphosis
and becoming and thus can be seen positively in great revolutionaries who tap into Evil as the
energy of challenge, defiance, creativity, and renewal (Pawlett, 2014, 3, para. 1). Evil exposes
humanity and all of its metaphorical warts, which gives us an opportunity to change. This sense

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57

of Evil is then necessary to avoid stagnation, such as breaking artistic paradigms, as well as to act
out against oppression, such as those who engage in civil disobedience against cruel governments.
Moral evil (with the lower case e), unlike symbolic Evil, is perceived as a malign force projected
as a product of the actions of an Other, such as a villain undertaking his/her/its evil deeds.
Both Evil and evil have disappeared from contemporary society because the culture of global
techno-modernity enforces a hegemonic culture of happiness (Pawlett, 2014, 3, para. 2;
cf. Baudrillard, 2004/2005, p. 139). We are commanded to be happy and enjoy. This culture
reveals an excess of positivity so exacerbated that negativity has been forbidden altogether
(Boldt-Irons, 2001, p. 84), thus creating an artificially antiseptic environment as we seek to
expunge evil from the world. What is unpleasant becomes evil and, therefore, must be eliminated
and never spoken of again. Baudrillard (2004/2005) sees this dispersion of evil as a source of
confusion resulting from associating happiness with good, and misfortune with evil. Such a
confusion arose from the assumption that human beings are naturally goodthe doxa of rational
Man present in both Christianity and secular humanism. Those who consider themselves to be
good fail to see the ambivalence or blurring between Good and Evil; rather, they create an illusory
identity based on minimizing or eliminating misfortunes such as poverty, violence, and death
(Pawlett, 2007, p. 129). We identify ourselves as good people if we help soften current miseries
instead of seeking to create something new by thinking radically. Instead of seeing Evil as a
potential creative force, evil is relegated to the sidelines with the hopes of obliteration.
The imposition of control over Evil, despite some minor successes over misfortune, inevitably
will fail. For Good to rise above bureaucratic authority, it requires Evils creative energy for
defiance and renewal, and yet the system of law, designed to combat evil, does everything in
its power to eliminate it: The great religious and political revolutionaries (Jesus, Che Guevara,
Nelson Mandela) are clearly Evil from the perspective of the system of law and order they
challenge, and they are punished accordingly (Pawlett, 2014, 3, para. 1). Intolerance for any
sort of questioning of the present situation and its status as true and real leads to its own absurdity:
A greater terror than the terror of violence and accident is the terror of uncertainty and dissuasion
(Baudrillard, 1990/1993, p. 47). In other words, as a society we fear that which pierces our sense
of reality more than what could harm our bodies. For example, Baudrillard (1990/1993) comments
that a mock hold-up had been punished more severely than an actual robbery, thus revealing that
real-life brutality is trumped by attacks on the sense of reality. It seems illogical that someone who
is willing to (and actually does) physically assault others is punished less severely than someone
who makes a mockery of the situation and calls reality into question. Baudrillards explanation
is that the uncertainty produced by the mock robbery is even more offensive to us than the real
thing. The simulation reveals that what we consider real (e.g., our procedures for law and order)
is, in fact, just a simulation as well.

THE DANGERS OF MANAGING EVIL

According to Baudrillard, modern Western society divided good and evil in the hopes of eliminating evil, but the association of evil with misfortune (and good with happiness) does not prevent
duality from reappearing and fracturing happiness, making it unbearable, diverting happiness
and misfortune into despairthe despair of having everything and nothing (Pawlett, 2014, 5,
para. 2). The management of evil has dispersed it throughout the world:

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[T]he anamorphosis of modern forms of Evil knows no bounds. In a society which seeksby prophylactic measures, by annihilating its own natural referents, by whitewashing violence, by exterminating
all germs and all of the accursed share, by performing cosmetic surgery on the negativeto concern
itself solely with quantified management and with the discourse of the Good, in a society where it is
no longer possible to speak Evil, Evil has metamorphosed into all the viral and terroristic forms that
obsess us. (Baudrillard, 1990/1993, p. 81)

Baudrillards use of the phrase accursed share stems from Batailles theory of consumption
(1967/1988). The accursed share is the excess, the superfluous energy that must be vented in some
way to avoid catastrophe. There is a choice to vent it through such things as artistic endeavors,
nonprocreative sexuality, and public events, or through violent means such as war. The Romans
recognized this, giving the language the phrase bread and circuses as the emperors distracted
the people with free food and gladiatorial games to vent the accursed share in a way that did not
threaten societal hierarchies. Although Baudrillard and Bataille disagree over where this excess
of energy originates (Baudrillard, 1998c), both agree that to deny the accursed share is dangerous.
Denying the accursed share has, in part, led to terrorism. In The Consumer Society (Baudrillard, 1998a), he interprets spectacular violence as a result of modern consumerism (p. 174).
Everything can be exchanged, even people:
If the hostage is a mirror held up to society, what he or she revealsduring this period of Baudrillards
workis an entire society held hostage by the threat of nuclear war. In other words, the Cold War
turns every person into a hostage. (Lane, 2009, p. 102)

The 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and other targets in the United States caused
Baudrillard to alter his understanding of terrorism. He describes the attacks as the absolute
event, the mother of events, the pure event which is the essence of all the events that never
happened (Baudrillard, 2001, para. 1). A virtual catastrophe can never take place (although some
may argue that it eventually must), but its murderously destructive mark is in theory itself, as its
elements are hyperrealized. These catastrophes are not just political; for example, economically
both big financial capital and the means of destruction . . . are now in orbit above our heads on
courses which not only escape our control but, by the same token, escape from reality itself (p.
2829). Baudrillard (1990/1993) writes that:
The interesting thing about the Wall Street crash of 1987 was the uncertainty about it. Was it a true
catastrophe? And is real catastrophe to be expected in the future? Answer: There cannot be a real
catastrophe because we live under the sign of virtual catastrophe. (p. 28)

Virtual catastrophes no longer refer to anything real. Although systems of functionality produce
meaning, rather than bear any relation to anything real, their impact is not lessened. The abstraction
of function, the functionality, of the systems has emerged to replace any sort of real function;
rather, these systems produce their own meaning which then, in turn, affects society (Bishop &
Phillips, 2007, p. 136).
Commentaries about the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center were an abreaction,
expressions of previously repressed sentiment, and constantly relived again through images and
words about the event. There is a direct correlation between a systems power and the public desire

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for its demise; as Western, globalized capitalism has increased in power and pervasiveness, as has
the will to destroy it from within (Lane, 2009, p. 104). Baudrillard (1990/1993) suggests that such
events produce a feeling of elation because of the suggestion of fatality, not because we love
catastrophe (p. 44). Because the United States monopolized global power both technologically
and ideologically, the game had to change. If we wish to envision a different way of being, how can
that happen within existing structures? Thus, we might imagine a disaster so that we can postulate
something else. Countless blockbuster disaster movies stand as witness to this sentiment, and,
like pornography, the phantasm is always close at hand (Baudrillard, 2001, para. 8). We must
fear those who are obvious terrorists and also those who appear inoffensive (any person, any
plane could be a terrorist in disguise!) and thus terrorism is like a virus in a zero-sum game of
death. Our antiseptic society wishes for no death, and so suicide bombers defeat us twiceby
threatening society and by removing our only equal reaction (to kill them).
The resulting US-led War on Terror seeks to eliminate the evil of terrorism, where extreme
defiance and the equally extreme management of that defiance takes an enormous toll of not only
human life, but also all other entities on Earth. By striving for an antiseptic society free from evil:
we become even more vulnerable to new forms of the accursed share that we secrete as a defense
mechanism against a greater danger, the catastrophe of unchecked growth and a liberation that
continues to radiate in all directions. This new form of accursed share is comprised of an energy
source that is violent, that opposes, that resurrects what is other, what is foreign. (Boldt-Irons, 2001,
p. 85, cf. Baudrillard 1990/1993)

Using a medical example to elucidate Baudrillards thought, as a society we have been using
superfluous antibiotics for a perceived threat, something we saw as evil and yet was merely a
common virus that keeps our immune systems in check. Now, by seeking to eliminate such threats,
we have created superbugs immune to our antibiotics and thus wreaking havoc on our bodies
and minds and revealing reality to be something other than what we believed or hoped. Such
transparency of structures can be revealed by what Baudrillard (1990/1993) calls superconducive
events (p. 41).

SHADOWS OF SUPERCONDUCIVE EVENTS

People are living in the shadows of what Baudrillard calls superconducive events, these virtual
catastrophes defined as untimely intercontinental whirlwinds which no longer affect just states,
individuals or institutions, but rather entire transversal structures: sex, money, information, communications, etc. (Baudrillard, 1990/1993, p. 41). By attempting to eliminate Evil, it has taken
the form of superconducive events like the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, events
that mirror the excesses inherent in the realm of politics and signal its collapse.
Currently, superconducive events include: global terrorism, the threats of economic collapse
since the Great Depression, and nuclear dystopian visions since the Cold War. These events reveal
the transparency of structures, societal or otherwise. Structural transparency exists in two senses:
in the sense of easy to perceive and in a computing sense of functioning without the user being
aware of its presence. Electronic viruses reveal the transparency of information in that computer
operating codes and the information stored on computers is easy to perceive, but also these viruses

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(and, for that matter, computers) can function very well without human agents being aware of
what is happening. Viruses follow designed pathways while also creating new ones, a sort of
liberation that produces uncertainty (Baudrillard, 1990/1993). Society has been trying to control
Evil and uncertainty, denying its radical alterity. Evil then is conceptualized as evil/misfortune,
thus becoming transparent instead of accepting the impossibility of understanding it. Although
we think that we perceive it (like seeing computer code), Evil can function without us knowing
that it is happening. By confusing Evil and evil, we have set the stage for superconducive events,
and the shadows and uncertainty of those events continually haunt us.

THE TRANSPARENCY OF STRUCTURES IN THE LEFTOVERS

For the characters of The Leftovers, the disappearance of 2% of the worlds population was
certainly real to them; however, the specter of uncertainty hovers above them more so than what
actually happened. This situation was not lost on commentators of the show:
Belief in science or in religious teaching can get you through the daycan get you through most
daysbut all of us, at some point, face a reckoning. That moment where the beliefs dont add up to the
reality. That moment of betrayal or realization or grace; that moment where somethings gotta give.
A mass abduction or death of 140 million people is fine as a thing that could trigger that reckoning
for a bunch of people, including the small town of Mapleton. (Saraiya, 2014)

People wonder if another disappearance will occur. It is this uncertainty that unleashes the weight
of virtual catastrophe. In fact, according to the interviews from The Making of the Leftovers (Elam
& Zibulsky, 2014), even the actors do not know what will happen, and so they play their roles
true to form. For the characters of The Leftovers, the disappearance has become hyperrealized
and thus leaves the world just as it is. The excessiveness of impending doom (whether it is from
further disappearances or from the Rapture) is self-exorcizing . . . leav[ing] the world in sense
intact, freed from the threat of its double (Baudrillard, 1990/1993, p. 31). It might happen at any
time, but it does not, and so life goes on as is.
In the television series, the antihero protagonist, Kevin Garvey, Jr., is the police chief of
Mapleton, NY, and his work and home-life struggles often enter into each episode. His father,
Kevin Garvey, Sr., had been police chief before him, but was committed to a mental institution
(although his actual mental state is in question). Laurie Garvey is also a main character. She left
her husband, Kevin Jr., to join the Guilty Remnant, a cult whose purpose is to serve as living
reminders of the Gods judgment (i.e., those left were not taken by God as part of the Rapture,
and so they are guilty of something by default). Laurie and Kevin have two children, Tommy (a
college-aged young man from Lauries prior relationship, whom Kevin had raised as his own son)
and Jill (a young woman in high school). After the Departure, Tommy dropped out of college and
began working for Holy Wayne, a sort of guru who charges a fee to take peoples pain away from
them. Jill has remained physically in high school, and yet does not seem to be engaged, in stark
contrast to the motivated and high-achieving student she was as shown in the flashbacks to before
the Departure. There are many other characters worthy of in-depth study, but this article focuses
on the Garvey family and their experiences, particularly Jill, as well as the Guilty Remnant.

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In The Leftovers, functionality manifests itself both economically and socially as companies
and cults arise to meet new psychological demands (e.g., the business of creating body doubles
of the Departed so that there can be a burial; the Guilty Remnant cult and the sense of purpose
they provide for the disaffected; the expensive services of the guru of emotional healing, Holy
Wayne). Now, arguably, some of these have a use, but the discourse around what happened is
paralyzing: So many messages and signals are produced and disseminated that they can never
possibly all be read (Baudrillard, 1990/1993, p. 35). In The Leftovers, this inertia and overflow
of supposed solutions is paralyzing, with drastic effects of the psychological well-being of some.
Superconducive events reveal the transparency of structuressocietal or otherwise. The disappearance in The Leftovers reveals the transparency of contemporary society, and some, like the
Guilty Remnant, see transparency in even some of our most sacred institutions. For example, the
cult believes that there is no such thing as family; human relations with each other are meaningless constructions. Baudrillard (1990/1993) uses an example to show how Others can reveal the
transparency of structures:

The revenge of the colonized is in no sense the reappropriation by Indians or Aboriginals of their
lands, privileges or autonomy: that is our victory. Rather, that revenge may be seen in the way in
which the Whites have been mysteriously made aware of the disarray of their own culture. (p. 157)

The Guilty Remnant cult holds a similar kind of power. Their very existence poses a challenge,
perceived as a threat, to broader society. While the city counselors plan the first Heroes Day in
the first episode to commemorate the Departed according to a new federal holiday, the mayor
states: Were all going to have a nice walk through town, have a good cry, and then move on.
Its time. Everybody is ready to feel better. Kevin points out, to the contrary, that those in the
Guilty Remnant are, in fact, not ready to feel better. Their presence at the remembrance ceremony
will provoke those present and the mayor should cancel it. Kevins prediction comes to life as
a violent mob attacks the Guilty Remnant and Kevin and his officers have to use billy clubs to
beat the normal citizens. The Guilty Remnant is a living reminder not only of the Departure
itself, but also the emotional and psychological disarray it inflicted upon those remaining. People
cannot return to their previous lives life unless they see the Departure as an evil misfortune, and
so any potential for the Guilty Remnant acting as a generative Evil to help them rethink their
contemporary society is stymied.
In terms of classroom environments, it is easy to react severely to disruptions that challenge
the status quo. From my own experiences as a teacher of classes with high-stakes testing for
university entrance, students who refuse to engage in the process can be frustrating for both
personal and professional reasons. When certain students see through the transparency of the
educational structure, when they see how standardized tests largely test ones ability to take that
test instead of real learning, perhaps we might approach them with the Guilty Remnant in mind.
Although we may want to avoid dealing with systemic educational problems of assessment and
even our ideology of individual success, we might be foreclosing discussions that could reshape
our thinking and that of others. Certainly, putting our heads in the sand and refusing to engage in
broad issues that frustrate us will not improve our situation.

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CONCEALED SELF-DISGUST AND DISENGAGEMENT

For some of the characters in the series, they seem to possess a concealed self-disgust rather
than a will to action as bodies rebel against the synergy imposed upon them by the transparency
of evil (Baudrillard, 1990/1993, p. 80). In other words, instead of having positive drives for
something (e.g., sex, an idea with political implications) they have negative drives against things
(e.g., getting rid of energy, hating all politics; Baudrillard, 1990/1993). In The Leftovers, the local
priest creates and distributes information about sins such as child abuse and gambling of those
Departed. His goal is to convince people that the Departure was not the Rapture. This purely
reactive behaviour bares little resemblance to what we would consider the normal actions of a
holy man who would be upholding tenets of peace and forgiveness. Instead of fostering a drive
for a more hopeful future, his distribution of character assassinations focuses on past actions,
given the citizens of Mapleton very little with which to rebuild their lives.
Similar negative drives as the priest are seen in the Garvey children. Tommy drops out of
college. As he puts it in the first episode, he didnt see the point, which he utters after a
flashback of him seeing two people jump off a building, presumably to their deaths, which was
motivated by the Departure. He does not drop out of college to follow some other path that he
desires. There is no consideration of a future because of the overwhelming uncertainty about
what is to come. He is rebelling against the normative expectations for him (e.g., go to college,
obtain a job, marry and have kids, etc.) because the Departure has rendered these structures moot.
It is unclear if Tommy really stands for something. Although he is working for Holy Wayne, the
guru who heals the pain of those left behind, Tommy is not a convert. He refuses to have Wayne
take away his pain.
Jill, Tommys sister, reveals a similar self-disgust when she steals the baby Jesus doll from
the towns nativity scene in episode four. No motive is explained, but the towns reaction seems
to be exactly what Jill wants. When her father, the police chief, does not seem to be making the
abduction his priority, she and her best friend, Aimee, deliberately bait him about it:

AIMEE: Hey, speaking of Jesus, big deal at school, Mr. Garvey. Everybodys talking about it.
KEVIN: What?
AIMEE: The baby, how it just vanished from the manger.
KEVIN: It didnt vanish. It got stolen.
AIMEE: So does that mean its the polices responsibility to get it back?
KEVIN Well, Aimee, as the Chief of Police, I would say that that might be a misuse of our resources.
AIMEE: Hmm.
KEVIN: Theyre just going to replace it.
JILL: Thats cheating.
KEVIN: Excuse me?
JILL: You cant just get a new one. Its sacred.
KEVIN: Jill, did you steal the baby Jesus?
JILL: Thats sick.
KEVIN: It is sick. OK, I have an actual job to go to, so I just want to be clear that Im not going to
be doing anything about whatever this is.
JILL: Cool. Dont.

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Jill then abruptly leaves the room, implying that the situation is not, in fact, cool and her actions
seem to be a factor in Kevin devoting some time to the incident later in the episode. From this
scene, it appears that Jill wants to create societal anger and fear. Is she rebelling against a society
paralyzed by disappearances? Perhaps the absurdity of looking for a toy baby Jesus makes Jill
into the sort of philosophical ironic voice that Baudrillard (1990/1993) calls for, that of exercising
irony and exploiting rifts and reversibility. Near the end of the episode, Jill sets the baby Jesus
doll on fire, a more extreme antisocial act. The actions and inactions of Jill and her peers provides
an opportunity to rethink educational discourse of youth (dis)engagement in the context of the
hyperreal world and superconducive events.

RETHINKING (DIS)ENGAGEMENT THROUGH THE LEFTOVERS

The series, The Leftovers, highlights a way to think about youth (dis)engagement in terms of
the problematic of reality. How might student (dis)engagement be examined in light of the
transparency of structures and the concealed self-disgust that results from this situation? It is
easy to view the behavior of seemingly disengaged students only as the result of a problem they
might have (e.g., lack of encouragement at home or perhaps a lack of interest); their teacher
might have (e.g., monotonous classes), their school might have (e.g., insufficient programming),
or their society might have (e.g., systemic racism). However, living as we are in a time of the
transparency of evil and superconducive events, our students (and ourselves, even) might at times
feel the weight of this situation and thus disengagement might be a response to this state of
affairs. This is not to say, of course, that we ignore possible individual or societal problems (of
which there are many). What we might consider, though, is that broader societal issues such as
the hollowness created by superconducive events could be playing a role as well.
In the pilot episode of The Leftovers, viewers see an extreme manifestation of contemporary
fears for/of disengaged youth, particularly drug use and sexual promiscuity. Peer influence is
often a source of anxiety for parents and teachers, as it is widely assumed to be bad influence
and regarded as a process of contamination (Schwind, 2008, p. 1014). In fact, studies in the
1950s show that with minimal evidence and maximal hyperbole, American policy makers, social
scientists, journalists, and filmmakers identified peers as the source of most adolescent problems
(Schwind, 2008, p. 105). The discourse of youth at risk has been shaped by ideas of personal
responsibility more so than postmodern condition of uncertainty and terror; i.e., at-risk youth,
as rational individuals transitioning to adulthood, are responsible for their future life chances,
and any nonproductive or antisocial behavior jeopardizes that future (Kelly, 2001). The actions
of Jills high school crowd can easily fall into this category of representing contemporary fears
about hypersexuality and destructive behavior. However, small but significant details about Jill
allow for a different effect on the viewer, one that lends itself toward Baudrillards postmodern
sense of hyperreality and the shadow of superconducive events.
A graphic exemplar of this effect occurs in the first episode. There is an extended scene of a
party during which an iPhone version of spin-the-bottle is being played. This version of the game
is not only a kiss or a hug, but also burning skin, erotic asphyxiation, and sexual intercourse.
This episode is not, however, a polemic against youths rebelling against morality. It is made
clear that Jill finds no joy in these activities. As she is asphyxiating her partner while he is
masturbating, we see a slow tear welling up in her eyes that spills over and gently slides down

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her cheek. This small detail acts against the simplistic representation of youth hedonism. There is
possibly more to this situation, as illustrated by yet another of Baudrillards commentaries about
the current state of affairs resulting from the transparency of evil. Perhaps these youths in The
Leftovers are no longer enjoying, but feel commanded to enjoy (Baudrillard, 1990/1993). The
performative aspect has taken over the real thing. According to Baudrillard (1990/1993), sex (like
everything else) has already been liberated, and so all that remains is to endlessly reproduce the
ideals and phantasies, images, and dreams that we have already undergone, caught as we are in
a simulation of earlier scenarios (Boldt-Irons, 2001, p. 84). Sexuality lacks conviction as it is
ruled by indifference and artifice. The transparency of the societal structure of relationships is
revealed by Jills participation in the spin-the-bottle game, not her own immorality.
Are we out of touch with even such immediate things as our own bodies? Do we even know
when we experience pleasure or is it only the performance that we focus on? Kevin Garvey, Jr.
is depicted as running in many episodes, including the pilot, but any pleasure he obtains from
the activity is not indicated. As running is becoming functionary and not a pleasure (Baudrillard,
1990/1993), are all bodily pleasures disintegrating into endless illusion? Baudrillard (1990/1993)
sees
Jogging is another activity in the thrall of the performance principle. To jog is not to run but to make
ones body run. Though it is based on the bodys informal performance, jogging strives to exhaust
and destroy the body. . . . It is the pleasure not of pure physical exertion but of a dematerialization, of
an endless functioning. . . . The body is hypnotized by its own performance and goes on running on
its own, in the absence of a subject. (p. 53)

In the schools, it can be tempting for teachers to fall into mindless routines, such as assigning homework as busy-work without a clear purpose or utilizing critical thinking for certain
class-based activities while discouraging such free thinking when more broadly applied. After
duplicating performance after performance without any actual content, we become devoid of
intelligence, without any generative capabilities (Baudrillard, 1990/1993).

CONCLUSION
Baudrillards conceptualization of Evil provides educators with an opportunity to rethink how
we deal with youth disengagement. The Evil that diverts and reverses has revealed that we might
be doing youth a disservice by assuming that their lack of enthusiasm for school is either their
own personal failing or only the product of bigotry. Although those two aspects may play a role,
we have been neglecting the general state of our hyperreal society. Engaging with media like The
Leftovers provides us with a way to work through this issue and calls for radical, creative thought.
In the wake of The Departure, how does one find any sort of meaning? In contemporary society,
how do we find meaning in schooling in the wake of events like the terrorist attacks on the World
Trade Center? If students (or teachers for that matter) see the transparency in the structures of
the schooling system or, more broadly, our society, what (if anything) might we do about it?
The weight of our hyperreal world of superconducive events on students affect their classroom
interactions. Were we to address the problematic of living in the shadow of superconducive events,
perhaps we might allow a generative space for students.

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Based on Pinar (2009), classroom teachers can acknowledge the dominant situation and then
intervene to provide space for students to examine how culture is transmitted and the ways we
might subvert the passive duplication of undesirable explicit and implicit curriculum and pedagogy. Critical theory has provided a meaningful challenge to the purely individualized approach to
youth (dis)engagementit may not be students personal flaws that lead to their disengagement,
but rather the schooling system or broader social processes such as systemic bigotry. What Baudrillards philosophy adds to the discussion is twofold. He provides another way of framing what
the problem might be and he does this with radical thought that challenges common sensibilities.
Although personal and social factors may be in play, there are also repercussions stemming from
how we conceptualize good and evil, particularly in the wake of the superconducive event of the
terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.
Youth disengagement may, in fact, be an appropriate response to the situation at hand. What,
then, can educators do? For Baudrillard (1990/1993), the only intellectual response to superconducive events is creative, radical thinking: to embrace contradictions, to exercise irony, to
take the opposite tack, or to exploit rifts and reversibilityeven to fly in the face of the lawful
and the factual (p. 44). Engaging in our present situation of confusing misfortune with evil
and denying the creative potential of Evil a` la Baudrillard and exemplified in The Leftovers provides an opportunity to rethink our present trajectory, particularly regarding issues like student
(dis)engagement.
In my own teaching experience, it has been common for teachers to talk about student disengagement in limited ways; for example, teachers might assume that a student has no ambition
or that they feel alienated by the majority population. In the former situation, the student is
assumed to be in the wrong, and they are met with either anger or apathy. In the latter situation,
some sort of bigotry is blamed (usually so broadly that no one is implicated) and the student
is treated as a pitiful subject. Engaging with Baudrillards creative Evil necessitates a different
approach. Although this cannot be forced, the teacher could provide the space for something new
to emergea new way of thinking or doing, both of which require teachers to assume guilt not
on the part of the individual or groups in society, but rather flaws with society itself. The trick is,
of course, how to create such a space, especially given that there can be no formula for success,
no one correct answer.
If teachers are to ameliorate our situation, it is important to broaden our perceptions of student
(dis)engagement beyond individual or specific societal problems to an understanding of our more
general postmodern condition. This realization, paired with a pedagogical goal of creating both
a place and a space for Evil, in Baudrillards sense of creative Evil, lays the groundwork for
our classrooms to foster engagement. Much educational discourse focuses on universalizing best
practicesnot promoting the emergence of the unknown. This situation is understandable, given
that embracing the uncertainty and possibility of Evil is a frightening proposition. Troubling
our taken-for-granted false sense of reality is a first step, and can be accomplished in countless
ways. This article, for example, uses The Leftovers to uproot common assumptions. Teachers can
undergo this process and they can try to trouble their students, as well. Independent or inspired by
this problematic, radical thinking in students is to be encouraged, rather than seen as threatening.
Resistance, however, is easily incorporated and assimilated back into the dominant structure, and
so attempts at problematizing ones sense of reality and encouraging creative and radical thought
cannot be part of the curriculum, or in any other way forced or scripted. As such, the call for Evil
in education is more of a sensibility than a method.

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