The Society of Spectacle - Guy Debord

What a brilliant piece of writing! It was like being in philosophy school again, except that I was reading Continental thought, instead of Analytic thought.
The book, while it presents a very disturbing perspective of society, was a great comfort to me. I guess that I had always felt a sense of illusion and unreality about modern life, but this book put a name on it, brought it out into the open and dissected it for me. I was able to put all those shadowy suspicions on the table and really see them.
At age 18 I carried my television out to the dumpster because I had grown bored of that media spectacle long before. I remember that night clearly. I knew in a deep intuitive way that television was a waste of my life. I wrote in my diary that I was sure to be able to live a better story than anyone I could watch on TV. I have also worked to keep mainstream media to a minimum, as well as advertising, and popular culture. All of those things are major components of the Spectacle that Debord is pointing out. "...the spectacle serves as a total justification of the conditions and goals of the existing system." (p. 8)

We all know that our culture has shifted meaning and fulfillment from 'being to having.' In the U.S. this has been true for a long time, definitely in my entire life time. The Spectacle is as he says, pervasive and omnipresent. It is so foundational to modern life that few people seem to even recognize it, let alone question it. I am curious what makes some people resist it, and others embrace it?

He skillfully follows shift in paradigm and various attempts to realize Marxist philosophy. His analysis of the Russian power structures that variously ruled under the pretext of socialism or communism is penetrating and insightful. He is also right in his critiques of capitalism, that the proletariat has not been eliminated, but more intensely alienated by the modernity of the system. (p. 66)

He's got some good advice, including a warning to revolutionary organizations who reproduce the power structure of what they sought to overthrow. (Animal Farm)

Finally, he speaks of the way that revolution might occur within the Spectacle. He talks of the individual, saying that emancipation is only possible when 'individuals are directly linked to universal history.' (p. 119)

Current philosophies of Human Rights charge that the only way to improve conditions is for the seat of the rights to reside in the individual. No special, different, or unequal rights can exist if the holders of those rights are always ultimately individuals, not nation-states, city states, tribes, or even families. Not until each individual human holds all the rights within themselves, will justice prevail.

I find myself closely aligned with both ideals, that individuals should be the ultimate holders of themselves, and have a real stake in the development of the culture they live in.