Swayzeen Medina

Guy-Ernest Debord wrote The Society of the Spectacle to send a message; to give people insight on their creation “The spectacle”.  From my interpretation of what Debord is trying to say in his writings, people as a whole “society” blindly make choices to give into worldly possessions; which then commodify the possessions into something we must obtain in life. If we do not obtain these possessions then we feel subpar to the rest of society. This notion, the mindset that people unknowingly process; turn products into grand big spectacles.  Once a product goes global it has taken on a life of its own. As the spectacle becomes even more of a spectacle “it occupies social life” (Debord 1967).

If there is any quote that encompasses what the spectacle does for society and the impact that it makes on naïve minds is, “The spectacle is the moment when the commodity has attained the total occupation of social life. Not only is the relation to the commodity visible but it is all one sees: the world one sees is its world”(Debord 1967).This quote is telling readers that not only do we know that products are popular; it becomes a social norm for us to see life in a perspective of becoming dependent on the “spectacle”. It also says that we as a society except, and see no wrong in that; which then allows the spectacle to forever live on our earth as a regular demand.

The theme commodity is written in a way to get people to understand why the spectacle grew to be what it is. It tries to instill the psychology of a society, while this information of commodifying is processed into their brains.  Debord says “This is the principle of commodity fetishism, the domination of society by "intangible as well as tangible things," which reaches its absolute fulfillment in the spectacle”; this lets us know that it doesn’t matter what the preconceived spectacle is, we make it what it is through creating a place for it in our daily lives (Debord 1967). The commodity is like a childhood mythical creature kids are afraid of, such as the Boogie monster it grows and lives if you keep it there on your mind; it takes over your mind if you don’t kill the idea of it.  

In the book Convergence Culture Henry Jenkins touches on how media has evolved through great lengths over time; but he makes it a point that there are no stopping societies from commodifying anything, once you have something like the “world wide web”. In the book he says “Freedom is fostered when the means of communication are dispersed, decentralized, monopolized, and scarce, as great networks” (Jenkins, 2008, pg.11).  The content of this quote is exactly why we have “the society of the spectacle”. Once mass communication gets out about a certain product there is no stopping the growth of whatever it is.  The scary part about it all is, it doesn’t matter if a product or entity is good or bad for society it will still become a spectacle once it touches the surface of mass communication (iphones, computers, tablets, word of mouth, ect.).  Social media has really done wonders for the spectacle; helping it grow and become more power to take over the world essentially.

Overall Debord makes it a point that this is “alienated production that must be continued as a cycle”.  The fact that there is sweat shops till this day in China does not faze us; just as long as our spectacle is being produced to our liking is our main concern. If people really read into the truth would they even care? For example if people really read into the truth about the new Apple Iphone 5; on how there are people in China getting basically tortured into a life style of  low wages and horrible working conditions, as they make our number one commodity.  On the website (http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2012/10/stud-o02.html ) they explain how the people of China suffer spending long hours in these sweat shops. In this world we have a war on want; there is actually a web page that is dedicated to showing the world the horrors of our choices (link- http://www.waronwant.org/overseas-work/sweatshops-and-plantations/china-sweatshops ). Both these publications have been up and running, they have been publishing stories in recent years, which tells us the war for want is only getting worse. This is the type of content Debord is trying to point out and portray.  

1st Image Credits: http://www.waronwant.org    2nd image credits: aidwatchers.com by Laura Freschi 

Citations:
 Henry Jenkins, 2007, Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide
Guy Debord,published 1967, France.The Society of the Spectacle Marxist critical theory