1/5/2024 0 Comments Society of the spectacle![]() In its most advanced sectors, a highly concentrated capitalism has begun selling “fully equipped” blocks of time, each of which is a complete commodity combining a variety of other commodities. Debord suggests that a prerequisite for these moments is the destruction of more “real” experiences: Like the sweetness of candy compared to a beet from a garden. It is always ready to replace meaningful experiences that we make for each other, with meticulously crafted moments that feel and look bigger and better than what we might have made for ourselves. The spectacle is capitalist means of production feeling itself. Thus the spectacle, though it turns reality on its head, is itself a product of real activity. The spectacle cannot be set in abstract opposition to concrete social activity, for the dichotomy between reality and image will survive on either side of any such distinction. ![]() Throughout The Society of the Spectacle Debord makes reference to real and natural worlds but do not mistake such a distinction for a (digital) dualist conception of the world. The propaganda of political rallies is not washed away by the balloon drop: it sticks with you long afterward. ![]() The society of the spectacle shifts between both: media-saturated events support the creation of lenses with which to see the world. For this we should turn to no one less than Guy Debord and his classic text The Society of the Spectacle.ĭebord uses “spectacle” to describe “a social relationship between people that is mediated by images.“ It is important to remember that spectacle can mean a visually rich event or something that you wear over your eyes to change your vision. If nominating conventions are anything, they are spectacles. With the Republican National Convention still freshly branded into our brains and the Democratic National Convention beginning to stagger into the media cycle, now is a good time to learn a few things about spectacles.
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