Note 1:

Favorite quotes:

“In a world that is really upside down, the true is a moment of the false”

“As long as necessity is socially dreamed, dreaming will remain a social necessity.”

The overall book describes the concept of the spectacle. In particular how media or images as a whole come to form a collective body. And the kind of relationship that is maintained through those images.

Debord starts his work with a quote from Feuerbach, stating that illusion has become something sacred. Even though Feuerbach mentions Christianity, Debord will come to apply and adapt this notion for his work in the following parts. He will find that our relationship with social media is rather similar to the way believers come to relate to religion.

The spectacle for him is not just a series of images or a culture around produced media. The media is itself a tool for communication. It is maintaining social relationships through that.

But even though media comes to be something that is supposed to connect us. This little union and consumerism are also maintained through separation. The media like the TV is something that takes over our private time. As it is enjoyment and entertainment, it is also a detachment from the outside world. It is meant as an illusion of our reality and to show us something relevant that we would not perceive in order day to day.

The spectacle is non-material but in a way, it also comes to absorb the material. It gives it meaning and it organizes it societally.

It is the medium that is responsible for knowledge. And in their usage of media, it also comes to control reality. The different reality is entertainment. Enjoyment of an illusion and duplicated reality kept by images.

As it is with any form of media. The spectacle is self-affirming. The image comes to regenerate itself into another image. Another contrary reaction to the past image. Social media is in a constant reaction to itself. The content is supposed to change the external life. And the external life determines the production of the content. The content that is meant to change the external world or the production at the end makes it to refer back to itself. It provides us with the eyes to look at the material world through itself. Rather than the other way around.

Its way of communicating is free. And everybody can produce content. But just because one comes to produce content does not indicate that this content will go viral or will be seen.

The ones who will be seen will be the most known. The most in power and charge of the media.

What is good appears. What appears is good.

What or who is the most popular will be that which will be repeated over and over the most. And that so in the end for itself to maintain the relevancy of this topic. Fame leads to more fame. Unless somebody steals it.

But what is interesting about Debord is that he doesn’t say that the media is controlled by the powerful. But rather so that the powerful come to be controlled by the media. The powerful will be the ones who will be the most shown. But the one in control is the one what keeps the show.

The tool. The spectacle is in the actual position of power.