Society as a Spectacle

We have grown into a society where having more is better and having the biggest is the best, but if we look outside our country are we really that materialistic, self-centered and selfish? Our culture has been altered by Commodity of the Spectacle. Some say we are a first world country, but if you really sit down and think all the factors. We as a nation are invisibly a third world country within its economy. We are spending money and producing more and more products that are not being sold fast enough to make profit. The amount of debt that we are in as a country is far more worse than a enlisted third world country. We do not appreciate the things we have because all we can think of is wanting more.

Society of the spectacle is a theory created by Guy Debord who believes commodity as a spectacle. People are driven by different values and wants that really have no true meaning, value and benefit. "Commodity can only be understood in its undistorted essence", why must it only be understandable  if it is undistorted. The impact of the spectacle is that it is altering the social life of others. It is dominating cultured values and the economy itself. Slowly as a nation we are becoming altered with different cultures coming in the United States. We can sit in a room full of students who are various generations of the "X" and "Y" generation, but the values of these students vary. 

The commodity is value, good service and is essential because of the economy. We are a capitalist country with highly consumed value in culture with supply and demand. We are replacing a necessity with a another necessity. It is a reflection on reality and we become reliant on images that we create about ourselves. We tend to forget taking care of others in the sense that some will not do a good deed if it does not benefit them. Debord states, " The spectacle is the other side of money: it is the general abstract equivalent of all commodities." It may seem simple, but the use and the power of a piece of paper that grows on trees can alter and change your whole life. Money is the ultimate source of what our nation stands for and the sad part is that people not from here, think that who we all are. We are the people from the United States with money and materialistic objects. Deep down inside everyone has their selfish instincts and some say to survive and to get far in life, you have to be selfish sometimes. What if we did care about others who we did not know, how will our nation be if we were all friendly and cared for one another than just minding our own business. 


A three minute video can say so much about other cultures that can help us reflect on how we need to treat ourselves and others with respect. Believing in the power to give and expect nothing back in return is a quality that is hard to find. We need to give to others to those we do not know. Helping the community  as one nation takes one step at a time. We need to stop buying things to make us happy and do the deeds on a daily that we will not expect something back. 

The video of giving certainly states something about what our nation is doing wrong. We may all feel like we know the struggle, but there is always someone else out there who is struggling more than us. "Its opposite is the society of the spectacle,where the commodity contemplates itself in a world it has created, " Debord states.  America is ungrateful for how much we have and it is sad that we don't take more time out in the day to not think about ourselves.