The spectacle does not sing of men and their arms
November 8, 2017 1:49 PM   Subscribe

The Situationist International Online at The Collaboratory for Digital Discourse and Culture at Virginia Tech. Worth it for the astonishingly packed chronology - did these people never sleep?
posted by thatwhichfalls (2 comments total) 30 users marked this as a favorite
 
It’s astounding how, after all this time, Debord’s concept of the spectacle remains highly relevant in the increasingly tribal world of politics and media consumption.

How many times do we see various companies (mobile phone carriers, ISPs, and of course, media companies themselves) advertise today about how “You better catch up on Game of Thrones to have something to talk about at the water cooler?”

The cultural development of the “spoiler” and its subsequent weaponization into an advertising tool to get people to buy into the spectacle is really remarkable as an overt development in the past 10-15 years.

Add to that how mere opposition to a progressive political stance has been seemingly transformed into an entire “MAGA” lifestyle designed to get people to buy into blindly supporting late capitalism even as they swear that “the swamp is being drained”, and it’s obvious that the ideas of the Situationists remain as relevant as ever.
posted by The Situationist Room with Guy Debord at 2:53 PM on November 8, 2017 [9 favorites]


The situationists also had a significant influence on the Occupy movement.
posted by Bureau of Public Secrets at 1:18 PM on November 9, 2017


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