Society of the Spectacle: The first three chapters
Debord’s Society of the Spectacle is an important interrogation into modern life. Below I have reproduced a brief commentary I made of the first three chapters a few years ago in a online discussion group. I hope you enjoy.
For those interested, the entire text is available online.
On Chapter One:
Right off the bat in chapter 1 the second thesis speaks out to me. The “unity of life” (whether or not it ever existed) is fragmented. All that is is a series of images. The history of philosophy is filled with images — going back to Plato’s notion of the idea or the forms. Debord appears to be positioning a dualism between “unity of life” and the image. This creates a dichotomous fragment between the two. Some actor or actors within this fragmented position attempt to return to a unity, but the unity is a false unity within the world of images. These images result in mimetic repetitions — the images automate other images. I think that this is really important for understanding the book as a whole. Debord throws out the notion that there might be some powerful group behind the oppression of these images. For Debord, even those who one might think of as deceivers are deceived. So the fascists truly believe in fascism. The capitalist truly believes in capitalism. And everything is mediated through image.
Within this mimetic repetition the spectacle becomes self-referential. There is no way to escape the rhetoric and images of the spectacle. This is what it seems to mean for everything to be mediated through image. Every attempt at communication must, by necessity, be image. What does this mean? It means that all of our communication is mediated by media. This seems self evident given modern communication systems (email, social media, television, internet, etc.,). Any attempt to communicate about the spectacle can only take place within the media given by the spectacle.
Starting with thesis 15 and 16 Debord begins to look at the way that images impact the means of production. Debord is responding to changes in the workplace which have occurred since Marx. While Marx wrote about the economic forces which controlled the working class Debord is more focused on a post-production economic system, where production is driven through advertising more than necessity. Economics is driven by social systems. Debord writes in the 18th thesis that the spectacle “elevates the sense of sight” so that desire is driven by the sight of something. I see this as drawing on the religious theme of the spectacle — where once one might escape the world through religion, it is now possible to escape through image (buy the right things, look the right way, present yourself as an image). There seems to be a constant desire to improve one’s image or one’s brand.
All production and desire is built on the attempt to create a new, better image. This image, for Debord, alienates one from all of life (i.e. the unity of life). We can see this as following Feurbach (God alienates one from oneself) and Marx (capitalism alienates one from one’s labour) to get to Debord (spectacle alienates us from all of life). We are alienated from one another because everything is mediated through images. We are alienated from authentic labour and production because everything is done in order to reproduce images for the spectacle.
On Chapter Two:
Turn now towards the commodity. There is a lot at the beginning which isn’t new to anyone who has read Marx, or is familiar with Marxism in general, but the classical idea of commodification is given with a twist. Everything is reduced to commodity. What we come to is almost post-economic. The world has been over taken by economics (thesis 40). Where power was easily seen in economic history, it is not seen in the spectacle. Within the spectacle one does not escape commodification when they are done work. No! The spectacle draws upon one’s leisure time as well (thesis 43). As we see in thesis 45, automation could reduce our labour time, but that wouldn’t do, because that would hurt the flow of capital. Thus, new jobs needed to be created — unnecessary commodities came about — in order to allow the spread/speed of the spectacle. Debord then gives a series of theses on “use value” — i.e. how much something was worth depended on its usefulness. But this changes with image capitalism. In the society of the spectacle “the commodity contemplates itself in a world of its own making” (thesis 53). The commodification of the world has left us in a world of images. These spectacular images create our experience of being in the world, but transform it into being in the image. The power is hidden not behind the images but within the images. The spectacular system of images is what holds the power — not government, no the capitalist, etc. for they too are simply subject to the images — and that power functions as a science of domination wherein “the commodity finally became fully visible as a power that was colonizing all social life” (thesis 41). Ontologically, it is now commodity images all the way down.
On Chapter 3:
Thesis 55 seems self evident within party system politics. The differences between various parties still function within the confines of the system. You are allowed to play the game, but you have to play by the rules. Capitalism rules everything — even systems that attempted to be outside of it (USSR & China are simply totalitarian capitalism, for instance) (thesis 56). As thesis 59 points out all aspects are commodified, even those which attempt to rebel against commodification — even those which attempt to fight against an idealized image promote image. This is the work of the spectacle — it cannot be escaped. Antagonisms, too, are the result of the spectacle — in order to keep the poor in line the spectacle pits the proletariat against themselves. (thesis 62–63). Ultimately, the spectacle is most powerful when power and security are most readily available, i.e. when freedom is erased from the equation. The spectacle, thus, erases freedom by drawing everything into consumerism and reducing everything to commodity image (i.e. how do you present yourself? What is your brand?)
