Guy Debord and the Society of the Spectacle

The society of the spectacle is a society saturated by images that serve capital. By equating self-worth with labor, prosperity with production, happiness with consumption, the spectacle ensures the continued reign of the commodity economy, preventing us from seeing outside of it. What effect does this have on how we think, act, and treat one another? And is there a way to break the spectacle's spell?

Guy Debord was a French philosopher and co-founder of the radical political group the Situationist International, which sought to raise consciousness by coordinating spontaneous movements through urban space, motivated not by any destination or work or leisure activity, but only the desire for direct experience: playful, creative, and unmediated, where one is a participant rather than a spectator.

For our next meeting, we will read and discuss Debord's Society of the Spectacle (1967): https://inventin.lautre.net/livres/Debord-Society-of-the-Spectacle.pdf. Try to get through it all! It's pretty short and written in aphorisms. If you only have time for one Chapter, read Chapter 1.

We'll also be co-hosting a talk on some Situationist essays on Dec. 18 at Woodbine, a community space in Ridgewood, Queens. If you want to get a head start on those readings, see below:

Situationist International Essays:

• Perspectives for Conscious Changes in Everyday Life (1961), on being revolutionary in one's ordinary life:
  http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/6.everyday.htm
• Toward a Situationist International (1957), on the construction of situations: http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/report.htm#Toward%20a%20Situationist%20International
• The Decline and Fall of the Spectacle-Commodity Economy (1966), an analysis of looting and other attacks on commodities. http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/10.Watts.htm