One of the big concepts that I got from Jean Baudrillard's Simulacra and Simulations is the idea that map is not territory. It's funny to think that on a map the lines are so distinct, though in real life there is no actual line at all. Wars break out over who own what because there are no actual "lines." One example would be the Sino-Indian war and another example would be the redistricting of countries in Africa.
Putting a modern twist on this concept that there is no "black and white" in the real, I thought of the division of person items after divorce. When someone gets half of everything, what is half? You have to negotiate the terms, which is similar to when countries negotiate the borders of countries.
In regards to the quote "The desert of the real itself," I asked myself "What exactly is real?" Zizek comments on this exact quote. He discusses the fact that because media allows us to imagine tragedy, we cannot fully grasp tragedy when it actually happens. The example he used was the terrible event of 9/11. He explains that because there are so many similar images on film of building collapsing and people panicking, that we can't fully grasp the gravity of the situation.
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