Giulio Laura April, 2020
The Society of the Spectacle [1] is a manifesto written in 1967, where Guy Deboard critiques a society ever more obsessed with images and appearance rather than reality and experience. At the end of the second world war, Europe had become gripped by consumerism in an evolving global market. Europeans of most social classes had access to consumer goods such as cars and appliances in the wake of seemingly peaceful times.
The Situationist International of which Guy Debord was part, were amongst some of the critics of the dutiful purchasing of consumer culture. They believed that “a society organized around such consumption induced boredom while shaping people's desires in ways that could be fulfilled only through the purchase of consumer goods” The basic belief they held seemed to point at the inherently boring nature of a nine to five, five day work week and with the help of the producers’ increasingly sophisticated advertising campaigns, consumers were led to believe that purchasing prescribed goods would help them find the satisfaction they craved [2]. What Debord demands in The Society of the Spectacle is not just the recognition of this spectacle the society is seemingly led to believe, but to actively critique and subvert it. This is a critique of post-war capitalism that sits in a Marxist theoretical tradition. Guy Debord makes this clear in the opening line of his manifesto stating:
“In Societies dominated by modern conditions of production, life is presented as an immense accumulation of spectacles” [1]
This phrasing is nodding at Marxes introduction in Das Kapital.
The wealth of those societies in which the capitalist mode of production prevails, presents itself as an immense accumulation of commodities” [3]
Debord recognised that the systems had changed since the publishing of Das Kapital, arguing capitalism had “Produced a level of abundance sufficient to solve the initial problem of survival - but only in such a way that the same problem is continually being regenerated at a higher level” [1]. In its search of new markets, capitalism had simply redefined what surviving meant. A sort of augmented survival where consumers no longer ‘just want’, but consider consumption ‘necessary’ for their augmented survival. He's not talking about society needing to be content with food, shelter and water but the change from ‘wanting’ to ‘needing’ that this mode of production creates. Even though we may have a perfectly serviceable good that fulfils its function the consumer is described by Debord to think he needs another ‘better’ one. [2]
These ideas then expand in what shifts this basic Marxist critique of capitalism to something more significant. Debord argues that capitalism in his time of writing was bringing about a “shift from having to appearing” [1]. Rather than the ‘need’ for newness coming from a place of function, we are guided by the thinking that it will improve our appearance. Basically, late capitalism has made the general intellect obsessed with appearances above all else.
Modern advertising largely relies on this function of appearance, selling us not the idea that a product may be outdated and need be replaced, but as the social function it holds and the effect it may have on our appearance. Apple’s 2006 to 2009 advert “Get a Mac” [4] didn't try to sell us a technologically superior computer but primarily tried to sell us the image and lifestyle of the respective brands. Coolness. Illustrated by the advertiser is a shorthand illustration that the kind of people that use Mac are creative, young and cool. If you also are seen with this product you will too be seen that way.
Fig 1.
Mark Fisher describes the twenty-first century as being almost stuck in the previous century [5], the feeling of everything constantly being outdated with newer and cooler goods.
In the movie ‘They Live’ 1988 [6] the protagonist Nada, a vagabond, finds himself in the possession of a pair of glasses that let him see the ‘true’ meaning behind the advertisements. When Nada tries to defuse the director John Carpenters visualizes the painful event of stepping outside of an ideology as a painfully long fighting sequence. Nada tries to convince his best friend John Armitage to wear the glasses but is met with extreme resistance. Are Ideologies imposed on us by others or are we the gatekeepers [7]? In this seemingly irrational fighting scene, Armitage seems aware of the ‘lie’ he lives but doesn't want to accept it as it may painfully shatter many of his or our illusions. This phenomenon may be part of the reason why the
Fig 2.
presence of discarded material is so common and universal. Perceived obsolescence and not only planned obsolescence.
The popularization of the electric car was made possible in the 21st century by Elon Musks Tesla Motors. A 2019 study in consumer perception by Zoe Long [10] described how several participants “explained that Tesla changed their perception that [electric cars] are slow, ugly, have limited range, and are not fun to drive”. Electric cars before this point were regarded to be lame and the nemesis of the fetishised cars glorified in popular games and film such as Fast And Furious, Tokyo Drift, Need for Speed.
“the authors observe that respondents more strongly associate Tesla with several positive images (e.g., being stylish, high-performance, and attractive),” [10].
The success of Tesla wasn't in creating new technology but how they changed the perception of this already existing technology. Coolness.
Fig 3.
One of the primary arguments of capitalism in the political and philosophical context is the lack of a reasonable alternative. Fisher describes the peculiar power capitalism has “to sell its discontents back to the consumer as commodities” [11]. Any expression of discontent from the current political situation is digested by the system and transformed into a product for consumption. [11] The Netflix series Black Mirror, directed by Jodi Foster, proposes a range of not so far in the distant future dystopias. In episode Fifteen Million Merits, the protagonist Bing works his way to the moment of spotlight in what seems to be a parody of present-day talent shows. The lower class perform their ‘talents’ in the hope to pursue a more fulfilled lifestyle of the rich and famous. Bing has premeditated a speech calling out the corrupt system in place whilst in this spotlight. He proceeds to hold a shard of glass to his neck threatening to kill himself as part of the plea to be heard. The protagonist is applauded for his dramatic performance and eventually became the very product he was criticising. His emotive performance became a neatly packaged good ready for consumption. His critique was digested and reinvented as a product, neutralizing any potential threat to the hierarchical systems in place. Black Mirror is in itself a product of consumption, has its message also been neutralized?
Fifteen Million Merits connects with the suspicion that the end has already come, the thought that it could well be the case that the future harbours only reiteration [12]. How do we Exit? Is there anything better? The idea of the future has historically been connected to the expression of power, energy and growth, a sort of ‘moreism’. More Speed, more consumption, more things and more violence [8]. Futurism was an expression of power, violence and acceleration. Filippo Marinetti wanted the reader to let go of the past and believe in the future. “ We believe that this world has been further enriched by new beauty: the beauty of speed” [9]. How should we look at the future now? In the wake of a climate crisis have we lost trust in the future?
From the dictatorship of the financial economy, the devastation of intelligence, school creativity and environments everything is sacrificed for growth, the growth of value, the growth of nothing. Post futurism consists of a sort of slowness. Choosing slowness like flowers enjoying their own decomposition, “they don't need to accumulate - they need to live in time”[8]. As Debord and Marx suggest, we have reached a point in which technology is able to create sufficient abundance to “solve the initial problem of survival” [1], can slowness at least slow capitalisms infinitely plastic entity, capable of metabolizing and absorbing anything with which it comes into contact? [12] or is this just another post-modern ideology?
Notes:
Debord, Guy. “Society of the Spectacle”. London, England: Rebel Press, London. 1992. [1]
Peter Wollen, “Capital of the Spectacle”. (Los Angeles: Unnamed Press.1989) [2]
Marx, Karl, and Friedrich Engels. Capital; a critique of political economy (New York: International Publishers, 1967). 3-15. [3]
Apple Inc. “Get a Mac” Television advertisement TBWA\Media Arts Lab, 2006. [4]
Fisher, Mark “Capitalist realism” (UK: 0 Books, 2009) [5]
John Carpenter, They Live (4 November 1988), Blue Ray. [6]
Slavoj Žižek, “Slavoj Žižek on “They Live’’” YouTube video, 6:00, 5 Agust 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVwKjGbz60k&ab_channel=ChristianG. [7]
Berardi Bifo, Franco. “After the future” (Oakland: AK Press, 2011) 15-60. [8]
Filippo Marinetti, Futurist Manifesto (Bologna: Gazzetta dell’ Emilia, 1909) [9]
Zoe Long, Jonn Axsen, Inger Miller, Christine Kormos, “Electric Vehicles and Automotive Brand: How has Tesla Shaped Consumer Perceptions?” Transportation Research Board, no. 98 (December 7, 2018). [10]
Foster, Jodie, dir. 2017. Black Mirror. Season 1, Episode 2, "Fifteen Million Merits." Aired December 11, 2011, on Netflix. [11]
Fisher, Mark. “The Slow Cancellation Of The Future” YouTube video, 46:14, 22 May 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCgkLICTskQ&ab_channel=pmilat. [12]
Fisher, Mark “Capitalist realism” (UK: 0 Books, 2009) ]13]
Oroza, Ernesto. “Architecture of necessity”, Website, 2016, http://architectureofnecessity.com/architecture-of-necessity-by-ernesto-oroza/ [14]
Mckenzie Wark, Capitalism is dead (London: Verso, 2019), 21-39. [15]
Mckenzie Wark, “Information is the new commodity” YouTube video, 2:19, 12 Nov 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xVbv4Of7Rg&ab_channel=VersoBooks. [16]
Cuaron, Alfonso, dir. 2006 Children of men. 63rd Venice International Film Festival, IT: Venice 2006. Blue-ray Disc. [17]
Featured Images:
Fig 1: Still from “Get a Mac”, Apple inc, 2008.
Fig 2: Still from “They Live”, John Carpenter, 1988.
Fig 3: Still from “Fifteen Million Merits”, Jody Foster, 2011.
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