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I feel like this XKCD strip is basically Debord's argument in modern terms and a response it: https://xkcd.com/1314/ https://xkcd.com/1314/ And yes in a sense

I feel like this XKCD strip is basically Debord's argument in modern terms and a response it: https://xkcd.com/1314/ https://xkcd.com/1314/ And yes in a sense it's strangely prophetic that we now live in a world where we feel compelled to do things like tweet and instagram and facebook and etc etc etc.... That we seek out experiences to make a spectacle of them, and that we see the world that way(e.g.): https://xkcd.com/77/ https://xkcd.com/77/ But what I really take issue with is this need to blame it on capitalism, and not human nature. We constantly strive to compete with each other, socially - and now we have means to do so on a much broader scale before. I don't think capitalism has some sort of "dark agenda" that pushes this forward. Advertisers use this against us, Facebook taps into it, etc, but it's human nature; one of those many cognitive biases that causes us to seek what we think we want, not what will actually make us happy. Pre historic people were almost certainly showing off to other pre historic people - and others were watching. Let's not pretend it's just because of Capitalism we feel compelled to do this.

samirillian 10y ago
I do believe that debord was aiming for more than shallow moralizing about the evils of capitalism. Marx certainly considered capitalism a step forward. But if we use the word capitalism at all, we are assuming that it constitutes a useful independent variable for analysis; cultural, sociological, or otherwise. Debord does a deft job at this analysis, irreducible to the average complaints about Facebook or twitter. For example, how might Debord's critiques be applied to the phenomena constituting the Arab Spring? Think about what sparked the Arab spring. Think about the Egyptian revolutionaries' adoption of the Guy Fawkes mask. Juxtapose those 'spectacles' against Debord's observation that 'the "society of the spectacle" offers false models of revolution.' imho, these illustrations are probably counter-productive insofar as they turn debord into a parody of himself, a straw man to knock over, rather than what he was: a truly dangerous thinker.

samirillian 10y ago

I do believe that debord was aiming for more than shallow moralizing about the evils of capitalism. Marx certainly considered capitalism a step forward. But if we use the word capitalism at all, we are assuming that it constitutes a useful independent variable for analysis; cultural, sociological, or otherwise. Debord does a deft job at this analysis, irreducible to the average complaints about Facebook or twitter. For example, how might Debord's critiques be applied to the phenomena constituting the Arab Spring? Think about what sparked the Arab spring. Think about the Egyptian revolutionaries' adoption of the Guy Fawkes mask. Juxtapose those 'spectacles' against Debord's observation that 'the "society of the spectacle" offers false models of revolution.' imho, these illustrations are probably counter-productive insofar as they turn debord into a parody of himself, a straw man to knock over, rather than what he was: a truly dangerous thinker.