#society-of-the-spectacle — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #society-of-the-spectacle, aggregated by home.social.
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" Cole Allen was dangerous. “Cole Allen,” the political narrative, is dangerous, a tool with which MAGA polices its internal dissenters—”I bet Tucker would have cried”—and reinforces the implicit divinity of its primary ego. But not for long! Both will likely be mostly forgotten in days. Tomorrow King Charles is coming to America! Maybe Tuesday we’ll take Cuba. The Straits will be closed this Wednesday, but victory will be restored by Thursday evening. There’ll be more Epstein disclosures, or another kerfuffle with the pope, or just a new poll, and we’ll know finally and at last that Trump is “DONE.” We may not notice, as we post the “BREAKING” news, how all-caps have crept into our language. We won’t have time, because we have moved onto a new spectacle, or we will have tuned out from spectacle. (I think of a liberal friend who acknowledges he hasn’t read the news since the election because he just can’t, and a left colleague who boasts that he hasn’t because he can—ignore it all, that is.) It’s into this quickening current that both Cole Allens will disappear, along with our memory of a time when one did not have to debate how many assassination attempts the president had survived, or staged, whether it is three or four or five or even more, much like the unknowable number of wars he has ended."
--from "Cole Allen": On the already-fading meanings of Cole Allen, man, meme, prop, and spectacle, by Jeff Sharlet,
Apr 26, 2026#Spectacle #USpol #SocietyOfTheSpectacle #ScenesFromASlowCivilWar
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" Cole Allen was dangerous. “Cole Allen,” the political narrative, is dangerous, a tool with which MAGA polices its internal dissenters—”I bet Tucker would have cried”—and reinforces the implicit divinity of its primary ego. But not for long! Both will likely be mostly forgotten in days. Tomorrow King Charles is coming to America! Maybe Tuesday we’ll take Cuba. The Straits will be closed this Wednesday, but victory will be restored by Thursday evening. There’ll be more Epstein disclosures, or another kerfuffle with the pope, or just a new poll, and we’ll know finally and at last that Trump is “DONE.” We may not notice, as we post the “BREAKING” news, how all-caps have crept into our language. We won’t have time, because we have moved onto a new spectacle, or we will have tuned out from spectacle. (I think of a liberal friend who acknowledges he hasn’t read the news since the election because he just can’t, and a left colleague who boasts that he hasn’t because he can—ignore it all, that is.) It’s into this quickening current that both Cole Allens will disappear, along with our memory of a time when one did not have to debate how many assassination attempts the president had survived, or staged, whether it is three or four or five or even more, much like the unknowable number of wars he has ended."
--from "Cole Allen": On the already-fading meanings of Cole Allen, man, meme, prop, and spectacle, by Jeff Sharlet,
Apr 26, 2026#Spectacle #USpol #SocietyOfTheSpectacle #ScenesFromASlowCivilWar
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" Cole Allen was dangerous. “Cole Allen,” the political narrative, is dangerous, a tool with which MAGA polices its internal dissenters—”I bet Tucker would have cried”—and reinforces the implicit divinity of its primary ego. But not for long! Both will likely be mostly forgotten in days. Tomorrow King Charles is coming to America! Maybe Tuesday we’ll take Cuba. The Straits will be closed this Wednesday, but victory will be restored by Thursday evening. There’ll be more Epstein disclosures, or another kerfuffle with the pope, or just a new poll, and we’ll know finally and at last that Trump is “DONE.” We may not notice, as we post the “BREAKING” news, how all-caps have crept into our language. We won’t have time, because we have moved onto a new spectacle, or we will have tuned out from spectacle. (I think of a liberal friend who acknowledges he hasn’t read the news since the election because he just can’t, and a left colleague who boasts that he hasn’t because he can—ignore it all, that is.) It’s into this quickening current that both Cole Allens will disappear, along with our memory of a time when one did not have to debate how many assassination attempts the president had survived, or staged, whether it is three or four or five or even more, much like the unknowable number of wars he has ended."
--from "Cole Allen": On the already-fading meanings of Cole Allen, man, meme, prop, and spectacle, by Jeff Sharlet,
Apr 26, 2026#Spectacle #USpol #SocietyOfTheSpectacle #ScenesFromASlowCivilWar
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" Cole Allen was dangerous. “Cole Allen,” the political narrative, is dangerous, a tool with which MAGA polices its internal dissenters—”I bet Tucker would have cried”—and reinforces the implicit divinity of its primary ego. But not for long! Both will likely be mostly forgotten in days. Tomorrow King Charles is coming to America! Maybe Tuesday we’ll take Cuba. The Straits will be closed this Wednesday, but victory will be restored by Thursday evening. There’ll be more Epstein disclosures, or another kerfuffle with the pope, or just a new poll, and we’ll know finally and at last that Trump is “DONE.” We may not notice, as we post the “BREAKING” news, how all-caps have crept into our language. We won’t have time, because we have moved onto a new spectacle, or we will have tuned out from spectacle. (I think of a liberal friend who acknowledges he hasn’t read the news since the election because he just can’t, and a left colleague who boasts that he hasn’t because he can—ignore it all, that is.) It’s into this quickening current that both Cole Allens will disappear, along with our memory of a time when one did not have to debate how many assassination attempts the president had survived, or staged, whether it is three or four or five or even more, much like the unknowable number of wars he has ended."
--from "Cole Allen": On the already-fading meanings of Cole Allen, man, meme, prop, and spectacle, by Jeff Sharlet,
Apr 26, 2026#Spectacle #USpol #SocietyOfTheSpectacle #ScenesFromASlowCivilWar
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" Cole Allen was dangerous. “Cole Allen,” the political narrative, is dangerous, a tool with which MAGA polices its internal dissenters—”I bet Tucker would have cried”—and reinforces the implicit divinity of its primary ego. But not for long! Both will likely be mostly forgotten in days. Tomorrow King Charles is coming to America! Maybe Tuesday we’ll take Cuba. The Straits will be closed this Wednesday, but victory will be restored by Thursday evening. There’ll be more Epstein disclosures, or another kerfuffle with the pope, or just a new poll, and we’ll know finally and at last that Trump is “DONE.” We may not notice, as we post the “BREAKING” news, how all-caps have crept into our language. We won’t have time, because we have moved onto a new spectacle, or we will have tuned out from spectacle. (I think of a liberal friend who acknowledges he hasn’t read the news since the election because he just can’t, and a left colleague who boasts that he hasn’t because he can—ignore it all, that is.) It’s into this quickening current that both Cole Allens will disappear, along with our memory of a time when one did not have to debate how many assassination attempts the president had survived, or staged, whether it is three or four or five or even more, much like the unknowable number of wars he has ended."
--from "Cole Allen": On the already-fading meanings of Cole Allen, man, meme, prop, and spectacle, by Jeff Sharlet,
Apr 26, 2026#Spectacle #USpol #SocietyOfTheSpectacle #ScenesFromASlowCivilWar
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"If [Guy] Debord were alive today, he would almost certainly extend his analysis of the spectacle to the Internet and social media. Debord would no doubt have been horrified by social media companies such as Facebook and Twitter, which monetize our friendships, opinions, and emotions. Our internal thoughts and experiences are now commodifiable assets."
#TiernanMorgan, #LaurenPurje, 2016
https://hyperallergic.com/an-illustrated-guide-to-guy-debords-the-society-of-the-spectacle/
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"If [Guy] Debord were alive today, he would almost certainly extend his analysis of the spectacle to the Internet and social media. Debord would no doubt have been horrified by social media companies such as Facebook and Twitter, which monetize our friendships, opinions, and emotions. Our internal thoughts and experiences are now commodifiable assets."
#TiernanMorgan, #LaurenPurje, 2016
https://hyperallergic.com/an-illustrated-guide-to-guy-debords-the-society-of-the-spectacle/
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"If [Guy] Debord were alive today, he would almost certainly extend his analysis of the spectacle to the Internet and social media. Debord would no doubt have been horrified by social media companies such as Facebook and Twitter, which monetize our friendships, opinions, and emotions. Our internal thoughts and experiences are now commodifiable assets."
#TiernanMorgan, #LaurenPurje, 2016
https://hyperallergic.com/an-illustrated-guide-to-guy-debords-the-society-of-the-spectacle/
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"If [Guy] Debord were alive today, he would almost certainly extend his analysis of the spectacle to the Internet and social media. Debord would no doubt have been horrified by social media companies such as Facebook and Twitter, which monetize our friendships, opinions, and emotions. Our internal thoughts and experiences are now commodifiable assets."
#TiernanMorgan, #LaurenPurje, 2016
https://hyperallergic.com/an-illustrated-guide-to-guy-debords-the-society-of-the-spectacle/
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“What we’re seeing is the consequences of #governance designed to generate fear, headlines, and conflict. It’s governing by #realityTV and today that recklessness cost someone their life” open.substack.com/pub/heatherc... #SocietyofTheSpectacle
January 7, 2026 -
“What we’re seeing is the consequences of #governance designed to generate fear, headlines, and conflict. It’s governing by #realityTV and today that recklessness cost someone their life” open.substack.com/pub/heatherc... #SocietyofTheSpectacle
January 7, 2026 -
less than 5 mins of “the society of the spectacle” / guy debord. 1974
#GuyDebord #laSocietàDelloSpettacolo #slowforward #societàDelloSpettacolo #societyOfTheSpectacle #theSocietyOfTheSpectacle
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less than 5 mins of “the society of the spectacle” / guy debord. 1974
#GuyDebord #laSocietàDelloSpettacolo #slowforward #societàDelloSpettacolo #societyOfTheSpectacle #theSocietyOfTheSpectacle
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Perhaps everything done by #Trump, the ultimate living embodiment of the #SocietyoftheSpectacle, is at least in part #performative …
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:o3rvzaukebbc3gs6ctvbxa2i/post/3m5od5zeoys2p -
Perhaps everything done by #Trump, the ultimate living embodiment of the #SocietyoftheSpectacle, is at least in part #performative …
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:o3rvzaukebbc3gs6ctvbxa2i/post/3m5od5zeoys2p -
“In 1967, French #philosopher #GuyDebord wrote “ #SocietyoftheSpectacle,” which expanded the idea of the #pseudo-event into a comprehensive social dysfunction: “All that once was directly lived has become mere representation,” he wrote, meaning that …” www.salon.com/2025/08/24/w...
We need a new theory of democr... -
“In 1967, French #philosopher #GuyDebord wrote “ #SocietyoftheSpectacle,” which expanded the idea of the #pseudo-event into a comprehensive social dysfunction: “All that once was directly lived has become mere representation,” he wrote, meaning that …” www.salon.com/2025/08/24/w...
We need a new theory of democr... -
CW: Society of the Spectacle notes
'On one hand, anti-union struggles of Western workers are being repressed first of all by the unions; on the other, rebellious youth are raising new protests, protests which are still vague and confused but which clearly imply a rejection of art, of everyday life, and of the old specialized politics. These are two sides of a new spontaneous struggle that is at first taking on a criminal appearance. They foreshadow a second proletarian assault against class society. As the lost children of this as yet immobile army reappear on this battleground—a battleground which has changed and yet remains the same—they are following a new "General Ludd" who, this time, urges them to attack the machinery of permitted consumption.' (Thesis 115, p 61)
"the first proletarian assault against capitalism" is explained in the end note. '"it was completely finished after the defeat of the Spanish revolution, that is, after the Barcelona May days of 1937" (SI Anthology, p. 84; Expanded Edition, pp. 109-110).'
"lost children (enf ants perdus): old military term for soldiers or scouts assigned to particularly dangerous missions; by extension, people who are on the extreme cutting edge of a movement."
'"the significance obviously does not lie in the destruction itself, but in the rebelliousness which could potentially develop into a positive project going to the point of reconverting the machines in a way that increases people's real power over their lives" (SI Anthology, pp. 82; Expanded Edition, p. 108). Examples of the "new signs of negation" and of the vandalism against the "machinery of permitted consumption" in Italy, France, Belgium and Germany are described in the same article (pp. 82-84; Expanded Edition pp. 108-109). See also Debord's remarks on vandalism and looting in his analysis of the 1965 Watts riot, "The Decline and Fall of the Spectacle-Commodity Economy" (SI Anthology, pp. 153-160; Expanded Edition, pp. 194-203).' (Note 115, p 136–137)
'"The long-sought political form through which the working class could carry out its own economic liberation" has taken on a clear shape in this century, in the form of revolutionary workers councils that assume all decision-making and executive powers and that federate with each other by means of delegates who are answerable to their base and revocable at any moment. As Pannekoek rightly stressed, opting for the power of workers councils "poses problems" rather than providing a solution. But it is precisely within this form of social organization that the problems of proletarian revolution can find their real solution. This is the terrain where the objective preconditions of historical consciousness are brought together—the terrain where active direct communication is realized, marking the end of specialization, hierarchy and separation, and the transformation of existing conditions into "conditions of unity." In this process proletarian subjects can emerge from their struggle against their contemplative position; their consciousness is equal to the practical organization they have chosen for themselves because this consciousness has become inseparable from coherent intervention in history.' (Thesis 116, p 62–63)
'Pannekoek: Anton Pannekoek (1873-1960), Dutch revolutionary, author of Workers' Councils (1947). See also Serge Bricianer's Pannekoek and the Workers' Councils. “conditions of unity”: Cf. Marx and Engels’s The German Ideology (Part 1, chap. 4, section 6): “Communism . . . turns existing conditions into conditions of unity.”' (Note 116, p 137)
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CW: Society of the Spectacle notes
'On one hand, anti-union struggles of Western workers are being repressed first of all by the unions; on the other, rebellious youth are raising new protests, protests which are still vague and confused but which clearly imply a rejection of art, of everyday life, and of the old specialized politics. These are two sides of a new spontaneous struggle that is at first taking on a criminal appearance. They foreshadow a second proletarian assault against class society. As the lost children of this as yet immobile army reappear on this battleground—a battleground which has changed and yet remains the same—they are following a new "General Ludd" who, this time, urges them to attack the machinery of permitted consumption.' (Thesis 115, p 61)
"the first proletarian assault against capitalism" is explained in the end note. '"it was completely finished after the defeat of the Spanish revolution, that is, after the Barcelona May days of 1937" (SI Anthology, p. 84; Expanded Edition, pp. 109-110).'
"lost children (enf ants perdus): old military term for soldiers or scouts assigned to particularly dangerous missions; by extension, people who are on the extreme cutting edge of a movement."
'"the significance obviously does not lie in the destruction itself, but in the rebelliousness which could potentially develop into a positive project going to the point of reconverting the machines in a way that increases people's real power over their lives" (SI Anthology, pp. 82; Expanded Edition, p. 108). Examples of the "new signs of negation" and of the vandalism against the "machinery of permitted consumption" in Italy, France, Belgium and Germany are described in the same article (pp. 82-84; Expanded Edition pp. 108-109). See also Debord's remarks on vandalism and looting in his analysis of the 1965 Watts riot, "The Decline and Fall of the Spectacle-Commodity Economy" (SI Anthology, pp. 153-160; Expanded Edition, pp. 194-203).' (Note 115, p 136–137)
'"The long-sought political form through which the working class could carry out its own economic liberation" has taken on a clear shape in this century, in the form of revolutionary workers councils that assume all decision-making and executive powers and that federate with each other by means of delegates who are answerable to their base and revocable at any moment. As Pannekoek rightly stressed, opting for the power of workers councils "poses problems" rather than providing a solution. But it is precisely within this form of social organization that the problems of proletarian revolution can find their real solution. This is the terrain where the objective preconditions of historical consciousness are brought together—the terrain where active direct communication is realized, marking the end of specialization, hierarchy and separation, and the transformation of existing conditions into "conditions of unity." In this process proletarian subjects can emerge from their struggle against their contemplative position; their consciousness is equal to the practical organization they have chosen for themselves because this consciousness has become inseparable from coherent intervention in history.' (Thesis 116, p 62–63)
'Pannekoek: Anton Pannekoek (1873-1960), Dutch revolutionary, author of Workers' Councils (1947). See also Serge Bricianer's Pannekoek and the Workers' Councils. “conditions of unity”: Cf. Marx and Engels’s The German Ideology (Part 1, chap. 4, section 6): “Communism . . . turns existing conditions into conditions of unity.”' (Note 116, p 137)
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CW: Society of the Spectacle notes
'On one hand, anti-union struggles of Western workers are being repressed first of all by the unions; on the other, rebellious youth are raising new protests, protests which are still vague and confused but which clearly imply a rejection of art, of everyday life, and of the old specialized politics. These are two sides of a new spontaneous struggle that is at first taking on a criminal appearance. They foreshadow a second proletarian assault against class society. As the lost children of this as yet immobile army reappear on this battleground—a battleground which has changed and yet remains the same—they are following a new "General Ludd" who, this time, urges them to attack the machinery of permitted consumption.' (Thesis 115, p 61)
"the first proletarian assault against capitalism" is explained in the end note. '"it was completely finished after the defeat of the Spanish revolution, that is, after the Barcelona May days of 1937" (SI Anthology, p. 84; Expanded Edition, pp. 109-110).'
"lost children (enf ants perdus): old military term for soldiers or scouts assigned to particularly dangerous missions; by extension, people who are on the extreme cutting edge of a movement."
'"the significance obviously does not lie in the destruction itself, but in the rebelliousness which could potentially develop into a positive project going to the point of reconverting the machines in a way that increases people's real power over their lives" (SI Anthology, pp. 82; Expanded Edition, p. 108). Examples of the "new signs of negation" and of the vandalism against the "machinery of permitted consumption" in Italy, France, Belgium and Germany are described in the same article (pp. 82-84; Expanded Edition pp. 108-109). See also Debord's remarks on vandalism and looting in his analysis of the 1965 Watts riot, "The Decline and Fall of the Spectacle-Commodity Economy" (SI Anthology, pp. 153-160; Expanded Edition, pp. 194-203).' (Note 115, p 136–137)
'"The long-sought political form through which the working class could carry out its own economic liberation" has taken on a clear shape in this century, in the form of revolutionary workers councils that assume all decision-making and executive powers and that federate with each other by means of delegates who are answerable to their base and revocable at any moment. As Pannekoek rightly stressed, opting for the power of workers councils "poses problems" rather than providing a solution. But it is precisely within this form of social organization that the problems of proletarian revolution can find their real solution. This is the terrain where the objective preconditions of historical consciousness are brought together—the terrain where active direct communication is realized, marking the end of specialization, hierarchy and separation, and the transformation of existing conditions into "conditions of unity." In this process proletarian subjects can emerge from their struggle against their contemplative position; their consciousness is equal to the practical organization they have chosen for themselves because this consciousness has become inseparable from coherent intervention in history.' (Thesis 116, p 62–63)
'Pannekoek: Anton Pannekoek (1873-1960), Dutch revolutionary, author of Workers' Councils (1947). See also Serge Bricianer's Pannekoek and the Workers' Councils. “conditions of unity”: Cf. Marx and Engels’s The German Ideology (Part 1, chap. 4, section 6): “Communism . . . turns existing conditions into conditions of unity.”' (Note 116, p 137)
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i suppose the atmosphere wherein you can make yourselves look injured under the regime oracle upholds or whatever gives you superficial cause to receive a blank check to write whateverness that amounts to overwrought and overarchitected solutions in javascript. but that's not really the language's fault, is it? android or iphone? how about that class struggle? #artificialscarcity #wageofwhiteness #societyofthespectacle #californiaideology #a11y
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I'm content it is the beginning of the end for Trump. I was considering to watch some of the debate between him and Harris, but reading this newsletter by @VickyACAB today, I've had enough. I'm also reminded how much I appreciate the people who choose to stay closer to the spectacle and summarize it back to the rest of us, so we can shut it off. https://all-cats-are-beautiful.ghost.io/donald-trump-a-post-mortem #trumpharrisdebate #societyofthespectacle
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'The proletariat ... consists of that vast majority of workers who have lost all power over their lives and who, once they become aware of this, redefine themselves as the proletariat, the force working to negate this society from within. This proletariat is being objectively reinforced by the virtual elimination of the peasantry and by the increasing degree to which the "service" sectors and intellectual professions are being subjected to factorylike working conditions. Subjectively, however, this proletariat is still far removed from any practical class consciousness, and this goes not only for white-collar workers but also for blue-collar workers, who have yet to become aware of any perspective beyond the impotence and deceptions of the old politics. But when the proletariat discovers that its own externalized power contributes to the constant reinforcement of capitalist society, no longer only in the form of its alienated labor but also in the form of the labor unions, political parties, and state powers that it had created in the effort to liberate itself, it also discovers through concrete historical experience that it is the class that must totally oppose all rigidified externalizations and all specializations of power. It bears a revolution that cannot leave anything outside itself, a revolution embodying the permanent domination of the present over the past and a total critique of separation; and it must discover the appropriate forms of action to carry out this revolution. No quantitative amelioration of its impoverishment, no illusory participation in a hierarchized system, can provide a lasting cure for its dissatisfaction, because the proletariat cannot truly recognize itself in any particular wrong it has suffered, nor in the righting of any particular wrong. It cannot recognize itself even in the righting of many such wrongs, but only in the righting of the absolute wrong of being excluded from any real life.' (Thesis 114, pp 60–61) #SocietyoftheSpectacle
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'The proletariat ... consists of that vast majority of workers who have lost all power over their lives and who, once they become aware of this, redefine themselves as the proletariat, the force working to negate this society from within. This proletariat is being objectively reinforced by the virtual elimination of the peasantry and by the increasing degree to which the "service" sectors and intellectual professions are being subjected to factorylike working conditions. Subjectively, however, this proletariat is still far removed from any practical class consciousness, and this goes not only for white-collar workers but also for blue-collar workers, who have yet to become aware of any perspective beyond the impotence and deceptions of the old politics. But when the proletariat discovers that its own externalized power contributes to the constant reinforcement of capitalist society, no longer only in the form of its alienated labor but also in the form of the labor unions, political parties, and state powers that it had created in the effort to liberate itself, it also discovers through concrete historical experience that it is the class that must totally oppose all rigidified externalizations and all specializations of power. It bears a revolution that cannot leave anything outside itself, a revolution embodying the permanent domination of the present over the past and a total critique of separation; and it must discover the appropriate forms of action to carry out this revolution. No quantitative amelioration of its impoverishment, no illusory participation in a hierarchized system, can provide a lasting cure for its dissatisfaction, because the proletariat cannot truly recognize itself in any particular wrong it has suffered, nor in the righting of any particular wrong. It cannot recognize itself even in the righting of many such wrongs, but only in the righting of the absolute wrong of being excluded from any real life.' (Thesis 114, pp 60–61) #SocietyoftheSpectacle
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'The proletariat ... consists of that vast majority of workers who have lost all power over their lives and who, once they become aware of this, redefine themselves as the proletariat, the force working to negate this society from within. This proletariat is being objectively reinforced by the virtual elimination of the peasantry and by the increasing degree to which the "service" sectors and intellectual professions are being subjected to factorylike working conditions. Subjectively, however, this proletariat is still far removed from any practical class consciousness, and this goes not only for white-collar workers but also for blue-collar workers, who have yet to become aware of any perspective beyond the impotence and deceptions of the old politics. But when the proletariat discovers that its own externalized power contributes to the constant reinforcement of capitalist society, no longer only in the form of its alienated labor but also in the form of the labor unions, political parties, and state powers that it had created in the effort to liberate itself, it also discovers through concrete historical experience that it is the class that must totally oppose all rigidified externalizations and all specializations of power. It bears a revolution that cannot leave anything outside itself, a revolution embodying the permanent domination of the present over the past and a total critique of separation; and it must discover the appropriate forms of action to carry out this revolution. No quantitative amelioration of its impoverishment, no illusory participation in a hierarchized system, can provide a lasting cure for its dissatisfaction, because the proletariat cannot truly recognize itself in any particular wrong it has suffered, nor in the righting of any particular wrong. It cannot recognize itself even in the righting of many such wrongs, but only in the righting of the absolute wrong of being excluded from any real life.' (Thesis 114, pp 60–61) #SocietyoftheSpectacle
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@dyscommunication #SocietyoftheSpectacle
'When Lukács, in 1923, presented ... [the Bolshevik form of organization] as the long-sought link between theory and practice, in which proletarians cease being mere "spectators" of the events that occur in their organization and begin consciously choosing and experiencing those events, he was describing as merits of the Bolshevik Party everything that that party was not.' (Thesis 112, p 58)
'Leon Trotsky (1879–1940), Russian Bolshevik leader, creator of the Red Army and most powerful figure in the "Soviet" regime except for Lenin. Following Lenin's death in 1924, he was gradually outmaneuvered by Stalin, forced into exile, and later murdered by one of Stalin's agents. the second Russian revolution: i.e. the 1917 revolution (the first being in 1905). During the earlier period Trotsky maintained an independent position between the Mensheviks and Bolsheviks; he only rallied to the Bolshevik Party in 1917 (at the same time that Lenin, in turn, adopted Trotsky's theory of permanent revolution).' (Note 112, p 136)
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@dyscommunication #SocietyoftheSpectacle
'When Lukács, in 1923, presented ... [the Bolshevik form of organization] as the long-sought link between theory and practice, in which proletarians cease being mere "spectators" of the events that occur in their organization and begin consciously choosing and experiencing those events, he was describing as merits of the Bolshevik Party everything that that party was not.' (Thesis 112, p 58)
'Leon Trotsky (1879–1940), Russian Bolshevik leader, creator of the Red Army and most powerful figure in the "Soviet" regime except for Lenin. Following Lenin's death in 1924, he was gradually outmaneuvered by Stalin, forced into exile, and later murdered by one of Stalin's agents. the second Russian revolution: i.e. the 1917 revolution (the first being in 1905). During the earlier period Trotsky maintained an independent position between the Mensheviks and Bolsheviks; he only rallied to the Bolshevik Party in 1917 (at the same time that Lenin, in turn, adopted Trotsky's theory of permanent revolution).' (Note 112, p 136)
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@dyscommunication #SocietyoftheSpectacle
'When Lukács, in 1923, presented ... [the Bolshevik form of organization] as the long-sought link between theory and practice, in which proletarians cease being mere "spectators" of the events that occur in their organization and begin consciously choosing and experiencing those events, he was describing as merits of the Bolshevik Party everything that that party was not.' (Thesis 112, p 58)
'Leon Trotsky (1879–1940), Russian Bolshevik leader, creator of the Red Army and most powerful figure in the "Soviet" regime except for Lenin. Following Lenin's death in 1924, he was gradually outmaneuvered by Stalin, forced into exile, and later murdered by one of Stalin's agents. the second Russian revolution: i.e. the 1917 revolution (the first being in 1905). During the earlier period Trotsky maintained an independent position between the Mensheviks and Bolsheviks; he only rallied to the Bolshevik Party in 1917 (at the same time that Lenin, in turn, adopted Trotsky's theory of permanent revolution).' (Note 112, p 136)
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CW: the proletarian revolution and generalized self-management
'The proletarian revolution is a yet-unrealized project.... the proletarian project ... can achieve nothing unless it carries its own banners and recognizes the "immensity of its tasks."' (Thesis 88, p 40)
'Marx uses this phrase in several places, e.g. "Proletarian revolutions . . . recoil again and again before the immensity of their tasks, until a situation is finally created that goes beyond the point of no return" (The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, chap. 1). embody its own new form of power: literally "itself be the power." The sense is that in contrast to bourgeois (or bureaucratic) seizure of state power, the proletariat as a whole will form a new nonstate mode of social organization in which everyone (and therefore no one) is "in power"—what the situationists elsewhere referred to as "generalized self-management."' (Note on thesis 88, pp 128–9)
'See Raoul Vaneigem's "Notice to the Civilized Concerning Generalized Self-Management" (SI Anthology, pp. 283–289; Expanded Edition, pp. 363-371) and "Total Self-Management" (the final chapter of Vaneigem's book From Wildcat Strike to Total Self-Management, online at www.bopsecrets.org/ CF/ selfmanagement.htm). I have examined some of the problems and possibilities of such a society in chapter 4 of The Joy of Revolution, which can be found in Public Secrets (Bureau of Public Secrets, 1997, pp. 62–88) or online at www.bopsecrets.org/PS/joyrev4.htm.' (Note for thesis 179, p 142)
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CW: the proletarian revolution and generalized self-management
'The proletarian revolution is a yet-unrealized project.... the proletarian project ... can achieve nothing unless it carries its own banners and recognizes the "immensity of its tasks."' (Thesis 88, p 40)
'Marx uses this phrase in several places, e.g. "Proletarian revolutions . . . recoil again and again before the immensity of their tasks, until a situation is finally created that goes beyond the point of no return" (The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, chap. 1). embody its own new form of power: literally "itself be the power." The sense is that in contrast to bourgeois (or bureaucratic) seizure of state power, the proletariat as a whole will form a new nonstate mode of social organization in which everyone (and therefore no one) is "in power"—what the situationists elsewhere referred to as "generalized self-management."' (Note on thesis 88, pp 128–9)
'See Raoul Vaneigem's "Notice to the Civilized Concerning Generalized Self-Management" (SI Anthology, pp. 283–289; Expanded Edition, pp. 363-371) and "Total Self-Management" (the final chapter of Vaneigem's book From Wildcat Strike to Total Self-Management, online at www.bopsecrets.org/ CF/ selfmanagement.htm). I have examined some of the problems and possibilities of such a society in chapter 4 of The Joy of Revolution, which can be found in Public Secrets (Bureau of Public Secrets, 1997, pp. 62–88) or online at www.bopsecrets.org/PS/joyrev4.htm.' (Note for thesis 179, p 142)
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CW: the proletarian revolution and generalized self-management
'The proletarian revolution is a yet-unrealized project.... the proletarian project ... can achieve nothing unless it carries its own banners and recognizes the "immensity of its tasks."' (Thesis 88, p 40)
'Marx uses this phrase in several places, e.g. "Proletarian revolutions . . . recoil again and again before the immensity of their tasks, until a situation is finally created that goes beyond the point of no return" (The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, chap. 1). embody its own new form of power: literally "itself be the power." The sense is that in contrast to bourgeois (or bureaucratic) seizure of state power, the proletariat as a whole will form a new nonstate mode of social organization in which everyone (and therefore no one) is "in power"—what the situationists elsewhere referred to as "generalized self-management."' (Note on thesis 88, pp 128–9)
'See Raoul Vaneigem's "Notice to the Civilized Concerning Generalized Self-Management" (SI Anthology, pp. 283–289; Expanded Edition, pp. 363-371) and "Total Self-Management" (the final chapter of Vaneigem's book From Wildcat Strike to Total Self-Management, online at www.bopsecrets.org/ CF/ selfmanagement.htm). I have examined some of the problems and possibilities of such a society in chapter 4 of The Joy of Revolution, which can be found in Public Secrets (Bureau of Public Secrets, 1997, pp. 62–88) or online at www.bopsecrets.org/PS/joyrev4.htm.' (Note for thesis 179, p 142)
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"it is economics, the historical science par excellence, which is increasingly seen as guaranteeing the inevitability of its own future negation. revolutionary practice, the only true agent of this negation...." (Thesis 84, p37)
"for both Marx and Debord ideology represents a rigidification of thought or theory into dogma." (Note on thesis 84, p128)
'If the rising bourgeoisie seemed to liberate the economy from the state, this was true only to the extent that the previous state was an instrument of class oppression within a static economy. The bourgeoisie originally developed its independent economic power during the Medieval period when the state had been weakened and feudalism was breaking up the stable equilibrium between different powers. In contrast, the modern state—which began to support the bourgeoisie's development through its mercantilist policies and which developed into the bourgeoisie's own state during the laissez-faire era—was eventually to emerge as a central power in the planned management of the economic process. a "national power of capital over labor, a public force designed to maintain social servitude"—a form of social order in which the bourgeoisie renounces all historical life apart from what has been reduced to the economic history of things, and would like to be "condemned to the same political nullity as all the other classes."' (thesis 87, pp 34--35)
Marx's The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (chap. 4): "Accordingly, by now stigmatizing as 'socialistic' what it had previously extolled as 'liberal,' the bourgeoisie admits that its own interests dictate that it should be delivered from the danger of its own rule; that in order to restore tranquility in the country, its own bourgeois parliament must be brought to a halt; that in order to preserve its social power intact, its political power must be broken; that the individual bourgeois can continue to exploit the other classes and enjoy undisturbed property, family, religion and order only on the condition that their class be condemned to the same political nullity as all the other classes; that in order to save its purse, it must forfeit the crown." (Note on thesis 87, p 128)
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"it is economics, the historical science par excellence, which is increasingly seen as guaranteeing the inevitability of its own future negation. revolutionary practice, the only true agent of this negation...." (Thesis 84, p37)
"for both Marx and Debord ideology represents a rigidification of thought or theory into dogma." (Note on thesis 84, p128)
'If the rising bourgeoisie seemed to liberate the economy from the state, this was true only to the extent that the previous state was an instrument of class oppression within a static economy. The bourgeoisie originally developed its independent economic power during the Medieval period when the state had been weakened and feudalism was breaking up the stable equilibrium between different powers. In contrast, the modern state—which began to support the bourgeoisie's development through its mercantilist policies and which developed into the bourgeoisie's own state during the laissez-faire era—was eventually to emerge as a central power in the planned management of the economic process. a "national power of capital over labor, a public force designed to maintain social servitude"—a form of social order in which the bourgeoisie renounces all historical life apart from what has been reduced to the economic history of things, and would like to be "condemned to the same political nullity as all the other classes."' (thesis 87, pp 34--35)
Marx's The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (chap. 4): "Accordingly, by now stigmatizing as 'socialistic' what it had previously extolled as 'liberal,' the bourgeoisie admits that its own interests dictate that it should be delivered from the danger of its own rule; that in order to restore tranquility in the country, its own bourgeois parliament must be brought to a halt; that in order to preserve its social power intact, its political power must be broken; that the individual bourgeois can continue to exploit the other classes and enjoy undisturbed property, family, religion and order only on the condition that their class be condemned to the same political nullity as all the other classes; that in order to save its purse, it must forfeit the crown." (Note on thesis 87, p 128)
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"it is economics, the historical science par excellence, which is increasingly seen as guaranteeing the inevitability of its own future negation. revolutionary practice, the only true agent of this negation...." (Thesis 84, p37)
"for both Marx and Debord ideology represents a rigidification of thought or theory into dogma." (Note on thesis 84, p128)
'If the rising bourgeoisie seemed to liberate the economy from the state, this was true only to the extent that the previous state was an instrument of class oppression within a static economy. The bourgeoisie originally developed its independent economic power during the Medieval period when the state had been weakened and feudalism was breaking up the stable equilibrium between different powers. In contrast, the modern state—which began to support the bourgeoisie's development through its mercantilist policies and which developed into the bourgeoisie's own state during the laissez-faire era—was eventually to emerge as a central power in the planned management of the economic process. a "national power of capital over labor, a public force designed to maintain social servitude"—a form of social order in which the bourgeoisie renounces all historical life apart from what has been reduced to the economic history of things, and would like to be "condemned to the same political nullity as all the other classes."' (thesis 87, pp 34--35)
Marx's The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (chap. 4): "Accordingly, by now stigmatizing as 'socialistic' what it had previously extolled as 'liberal,' the bourgeoisie admits that its own interests dictate that it should be delivered from the danger of its own rule; that in order to restore tranquility in the country, its own bourgeois parliament must be brought to a halt; that in order to preserve its social power intact, its political power must be broken; that the individual bourgeois can continue to exploit the other classes and enjoy undisturbed property, family, religion and order only on the condition that their class be condemned to the same political nullity as all the other classes; that in order to save its purse, it must forfeit the crown." (Note on thesis 87, p 128)
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#SocietyoftheSpectacle section 1.4
"The spectacle is not a collection of images; it is a social relation between people that is mediated by images."
Again, Debord wrote this long before the internet existed, but we can't help reading it in the context of the ubiquitous internet.
I read this as a reminder that the internet itself is not something separate from society. It is precisely HOW people interact now. In a sense, it expands beyond "images" alone, but at the same time, it doesn't. This here is a screen. I don't know if text plays into Debord's arguments at any point (still reading the book), but it makes me curious, should writing be defined as "images?"
Regardless, the point here seems to be that the "spectacle" is not separate from social interaction. It IS a component, or THE component, now, which dictates how people interact.
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#SocietyoftheSpectacle section 1.4
"The spectacle is not a collection of images; it is a social relation between people that is mediated by images."
Again, Debord wrote this long before the internet existed, but we can't help reading it in the context of the ubiquitous internet.
I read this as a reminder that the internet itself is not something separate from society. It is precisely HOW people interact now. In a sense, it expands beyond "images" alone, but at the same time, it doesn't. This here is a screen. I don't know if text plays into Debord's arguments at any point (still reading the book), but it makes me curious, should writing be defined as "images?"
Regardless, the point here seems to be that the "spectacle" is not separate from social interaction. It IS a component, or THE component, now, which dictates how people interact.
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#SocietyoftheSpectacle section 1.4
"The spectacle is not a collection of images; it is a social relation between people that is mediated by images."
Again, Debord wrote this long before the internet existed, but we can't help reading it in the context of the ubiquitous internet.
I read this as a reminder that the internet itself is not something separate from society. It is precisely HOW people interact now. In a sense, it expands beyond "images" alone, but at the same time, it doesn't. This here is a screen. I don't know if text plays into Debord's arguments at any point (still reading the book), but it makes me curious, should writing be defined as "images?"
Regardless, the point here seems to be that the "spectacle" is not separate from social interaction. It IS a component, or THE component, now, which dictates how people interact.
-
#SocietyoftheSpectacle section 1.4
"The spectacle is not a collection of images; it is a social relation between people that is mediated by images."
Again, Debord wrote this long before the internet existed, but we can't help reading it in the context of the ubiquitous internet.
I read this as a reminder that the internet itself is not something separate from society. It is precisely HOW people interact now. In a sense, it expands beyond "images" alone, but at the same time, it doesn't. This here is a screen. I don't know if text plays into Debord's arguments at any point (still reading the book), but it makes me curious, should writing be defined as "images?"
Regardless, the point here seems to be that the "spectacle" is not separate from social interaction. It IS a component, or THE component, now, which dictates how people interact.
-
#SocietyoftheSpectacle section 1.4
"The spectacle is not a collection of images; it is a social relation between people that is mediated by images."
Again, Debord wrote this long before the internet existed, but we can't help reading it in the context of the ubiquitous internet.
I read this as a reminder that the internet itself is not something separate from society. It is precisely HOW people interact now. In a sense, it expands beyond "images" alone, but at the same time, it doesn't. This here is a screen. I don't know if text plays into Debord's arguments at any point (still reading the book), but it makes me curious, should writing be defined as "images?"
Regardless, the point here seems to be that the "spectacle" is not separate from social interaction. It IS a component, or THE component, now, which dictates how people interact.
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"The images detached from every aspect of life merge into a common stream in which the unity of that life can no longer be recovered. Fragmented views of reality regroup themselves into a new unity as a separate pseudo-world that can only be looked at. The specialization of images of the world has culminated in a world of autonomized images where even the deceivers are deceived. The spectacle is a concrete inversion of life, an autonomous movement of the nonliving."
Section 1.2 of #SocietyoftheSpectacle
I think Debord is probably talking about the ubiquity of televisions during his time, but this could have been written about #YouTube, #Vine, #TikTok, etc. in recent years.
Add the wrinkle of #AI generated images (and, soon, video) and the term "autonomized" seems more literal than I imagine Debord could have predicted.
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"The images detached from every aspect of life merge into a common stream in which the unity of that life can no longer be recovered. Fragmented views of reality regroup themselves into a new unity as a separate pseudo-world that can only be looked at. The specialization of images of the world has culminated in a world of autonomized images where even the deceivers are deceived. The spectacle is a concrete inversion of life, an autonomous movement of the nonliving."
Section 1.2 of #SocietyoftheSpectacle
I think Debord is probably talking about the ubiquity of televisions during his time, but this could have been written about #YouTube, #Vine, #TikTok, etc. in recent years.
Add the wrinkle of #AI generated images (and, soon, video) and the term "autonomized" seems more literal than I imagine Debord could have predicted.
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"The images detached from every aspect of life merge into a common stream in which the unity of that life can no longer be recovered. Fragmented views of reality regroup themselves into a new unity as a separate pseudo-world that can only be looked at. The specialization of images of the world has culminated in a world of autonomized images where even the deceivers are deceived. The spectacle is a concrete inversion of life, an autonomous movement of the nonliving."
Section 1.2 of #SocietyoftheSpectacle
I think Debord is probably talking about the ubiquity of televisions during his time, but this could have been written about #YouTube, #Vine, #TikTok, etc. in recent years.
Add the wrinkle of #AI generated images (and, soon, video) and the term "autonomized" seems more literal than I imagine Debord could have predicted.
-
"The images detached from every aspect of life merge into a common stream in which the unity of that life can no longer be recovered. Fragmented views of reality regroup themselves into a new unity as a separate pseudo-world that can only be looked at. The specialization of images of the world has culminated in a world of autonomized images where even the deceivers are deceived. The spectacle is a concrete inversion of life, an autonomous movement of the nonliving."
Section 1.2 of #SocietyoftheSpectacle
I think Debord is probably talking about the ubiquity of televisions during his time, but this could have been written about #YouTube, #Vine, #TikTok, etc. in recent years.
Add the wrinkle of #AI generated images (and, soon, video) and the term "autonomized" seems more literal than I imagine Debord could have predicted.
-
"The images detached from every aspect of life merge into a common stream in which the unity of that life can no longer be recovered. Fragmented views of reality regroup themselves into a new unity as a separate pseudo-world that can only be looked at. The specialization of images of the world has culminated in a world of autonomized images where even the deceivers are deceived. The spectacle is a concrete inversion of life, an autonomous movement of the nonliving."
Section 1.2 of #SocietyoftheSpectacle
I think Debord is probably talking about the ubiquity of televisions during his time, but this could have been written about #YouTube, #Vine, #TikTok, etc. in recent years.
Add the wrinkle of #AI generated images (and, soon, video) and the term "autonomized" seems more literal than I imagine Debord could have predicted.
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"In societies where modern conditions of production prevail, life is presented as an immense accumulation of spectacles. Everything that was directly lived has receded into a representation."
Thus opens Guy Debord's Society of the Spectacle, first published in 1967.
And after that opening, the prophetic statements just keep on coming, as if Debord is talking about #YouTube, #TikTok, online "influencers," "content creators," or any one of the features of present-day life which serve to keep us separated and divided while buying into the illusion of constant connectedness.
Planning to share more quotes as I work my way through the book. Follow the hashtag #SocietyoftheSpectacle if you'd like to follow along.
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"In societies where modern conditions of production prevail, life is presented as an immense accumulation of spectacles. Everything that was directly lived has receded into a representation."
Thus opens Guy Debord's Society of the Spectacle, first published in 1967.
And after that opening, the prophetic statements just keep on coming, as if Debord is talking about #YouTube, #TikTok, online "influencers," "content creators," or any one of the features of present-day life which serve to keep us separated and divided while buying into the illusion of constant connectedness.
Planning to share more quotes as I work my way through the book. Follow the hashtag #SocietyoftheSpectacle if you'd like to follow along.
-
"In societies where modern conditions of production prevail, life is presented as an immense accumulation of spectacles. Everything that was directly lived has receded into a representation."
Thus opens Guy Debord's Society of the Spectacle, first published in 1967.
And after that opening, the prophetic statements just keep on coming, as if Debord is talking about #YouTube, #TikTok, online "influencers," "content creators," or any one of the features of present-day life which serve to keep us separated and divided while buying into the illusion of constant connectedness.
Planning to share more quotes as I work my way through the book. Follow the hashtag #SocietyoftheSpectacle if you'd like to follow along.
-
"In societies where modern conditions of production prevail, life is presented as an immense accumulation of spectacles. Everything that was directly lived has receded into a representation."
Thus opens Guy Debord's Society of the Spectacle, first published in 1967.
And after that opening, the prophetic statements just keep on coming, as if Debord is talking about #YouTube, #TikTok, online "influencers," "content creators," or any one of the features of present-day life which serve to keep us separated and divided while buying into the illusion of constant connectedness.
Planning to share more quotes as I work my way through the book. Follow the hashtag #SocietyoftheSpectacle if you'd like to follow along.
-
"In societies where modern conditions of production prevail, life is presented as an immense accumulation of spectacles. Everything that was directly lived has receded into a representation."
Thus opens Guy Debord's Society of the Spectacle, first published in 1967.
And after that opening, the prophetic statements just keep on coming, as if Debord is talking about #YouTube, #TikTok, online "influencers," "content creators," or any one of the features of present-day life which serve to keep us separated and divided while buying into the illusion of constant connectedness.
Planning to share more quotes as I work my way through the book. Follow the hashtag #SocietyoftheSpectacle if you'd like to follow along.
