Benjamin's ideas were very important as precursors to postmodernism . He got us, for example, to think about how technology alters the way we look at reality . Here he argues that because of mechanical reproduction, art loses its authenticity. But this is good, because it democratizes and politicizes art. He disagreed with Frankfurt School colleagues such as Adorno because he argued that art might help free people, not enslave them in a capitalist culture industry .
Contemporary culture is how oppressive ideologies are reproduced and disseminated.
Like McLuhan , Benjamin is positive about new technologies, emphasizing their liberating, democratizing influences. This put him at odds with the dominant elitist strain of modernism of the early 20th century. When, eventually, the map becomes tattered and frayed, and ultimately disintegrates, the people become nostalgic for it, feeling that they have lost something. The real territory which is now revealed to them seems alien, unfamiliar. So Baudrillard would argue that we, as a society, have lost touch with reality.