Jean Baudrillard and Simulation

In Contemporary Perspectives on Rhetoric, Jean Baudrillard's theory of simulation is made up of four stages. The first stage is referred to as "Symbolic Order," which is characterized by "clear, referential, stable" signs that "reflect basic reality" (308). This first stage Baudrillard identifies with the feudal period in Europe. From this point the second stage, referred to as "Counterfeits" arises, which is associated historically with the period extending from the Renaissance to the industrial revolution. In this stage a single degree of separation exists between the sign and the reality it is supposed to signify: "Signs are recognized as mimicking reality, but there is still a connection between the two spheres" (308). The third stage in simulation is referred to as "Production," and is identified with the era of the industrial revolution. In this stage, "signs and the ability to control the code have overtaken production itself," which reverses the hitherto traditional hierarchy between humans and signs. In the fourth (and final?) stage of simulation--also simply known as "simulation"--there is supposedly a complete rupture between reality and the realm of the sign. Baudrillard points to Michael Jackson as an exemplar of the complete disconnection from reality that supposedly takes place in this stage. There are two questions I would want to raise against Baudrillard here. First, how should this model be extrapolated backwards to ancient Greece and Rome? How should it be extended (or not extended?) to the Middle East and Asia? Second, it is unclear whether Baudrillard intends these four stages to be utterly sequential or whether they exist stacked on top of one another in some way. There are surely regions, even within the West, whose cultural development and mode of life reflects earlier stages in this progression. How is the fact that Western society does not universally resemble modern American/European cities accounted for by Baudrillard?