Guy Debord, born on 28 December in 1931, was a Marxist philosopher and filmmaker who co-founded the Situationist International and authored "The Society of the Spectacle" (1967).
Guy Debord began his career as a writer after dropping out of the University of Paris, where he was studying law. Debord joined the Letterist International, a group of avant-garde French artists and intellectuals, when he was 18.
Debord was first to propose the concept of the "Spectacle", referring to the role of media, culture and advertising in post-World War II consumerist society, and the way it is able to commercially co-opt and repackage counter-cultural ideas and movements.
On the nature of media and the new-found emphasis on appearance, Debord stated "Just as early industrial capitalism moved the focus of existence from being to having, post-industrial culture has moved that focus from having to appearing."
The concept of "Spectacle" became central to the ideas of the Situationist International, which Debord co-founded in 1957. Ideas from the Situationists proved influential on protesters during the May 68 uprising in France, where quotes and slogans from Situationist work would appear on graffiti and posters.
Debord himself would disband the Situationist International in 1972, following internal tensions amongst its members, and would focus on creating experimental film and tabletop war games, publishing "A Game of War" in 1987.
Suffering from depression and alcoholism in his later years, Debord committed suicide at his home in 1994.
"The more powerful the class, the more it claims not to exist."
- Guy Debord
Situationist International
The Situationist International (SI) was an international organization of social revolutionaries made up of avant-garde artists, intellectuals, and political theorists. It was prominent in Europe from its formation in 1957 to its dissolution in 1972. The intellectual foundations of the Situationist International were derived primarily from libertarian Marxism and the avant-garde art movements of the early 20th century, particularly Dada and Surrealism. Overall, situationist theory represented an attempt to synthesize this diverse field of theoretical disciplines into a modern and comprehensive critique of mid-20th century advanced capitalism.
Essential to situationist theory was the concept of the spectacle, a unified critique of advanced capitalism of which a primary concern was the progressively increasing tendency towards the expression and mediation of social relations through objects. The situationists believed that the shift from individual expression through directly lived experiences, or the first-hand fulfillment of authentic desires, to individual expression by proxy through the exchange or consumption of commodities, or passive second-hand alienation, inflicted significant and far-reaching damage to the quality of human life for both individuals and society. Another important concept of situationist theory was the primary means of counteracting the spectacle; the construction of situations, moments of life deliberately constructed for the purpose of reawakening and pursuing authentic desires, experiencing the feeling of life and adventure, and the liberation of everyday life.
The situationists recognized that capitalism had changed since Karl Marx's formative writings, but maintained that his analysis of the capitalist mode of production remained fundamentally correct; they rearticulated and expanded upon several classical Marxist concepts, such as his theory of alienation. In their expanded interpretation of Marxist theory, the situationists asserted that the misery of social alienation and commodity fetishism were no longer limited to the fundamental components of capitalist society, but had now in advanced capitalism spread themselves to every aspect of life and culture.
When the Situationist International was first formed, it had a predominantly artistic focus; emphasis was placed on concepts like unitary urbanism and psychogeography. Gradually, however, that focus shifted more towards revolutionary and political theory. The Situationist International reached the apex of its creative output and influence in 1967 and 1968, with the former marking the publication of the two most significant texts of the situationist movement, The Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord and The Revolution of Everyday Life by Raoul Vaneigem. The expressed writing and political theory of the two aforementioned texts, along with other situationist publications, proved greatly influential in shaping the ideas behind the May 1968 insurrections in France; quotes, phrases, and slogans from situationist texts and publications were ubiquitous on posters and graffiti throughout France during the uprisings.
-
Guy Debord: The Life, Death, and Afterlife of a Brilliant Crank :debord-tired:
-
Enragés and Situationists in the Occupations Movement :france-cool:
Megathreads and spaces to hang out:
- ❤️ Come listen to music and Watch movies with your fellow Hexbears nerd, in Cy.tube
- 💖 Come talk in the New Weekly Queer thread
- 💛 Read and talk about a current topics in the News Megathread
- ⭐️ September Movie Nominations ⭐️
reminders:
- 💚 You nerds can join specific comms to see posts about all sorts of topics
- 💙 Hexbear’s algorithm prioritizes comments over upbears
- 💜 Sorting by new you nerd
- 🌈 If you ever want to make your own megathread, you can reserve a spot here nerd
- 🐶 Join the unofficial Hexbear-adjacent Mastodon instance toots.matapacos.dog
Links To Resources (Aid and Theory):
Aid:
Theory:
I was never really into it persoanlly but I remember a certain leftist twitch streamer before I stopped watching entirely years ago that had a donation counter that had a sub-goal or $ value something like that. The number was hit by a charitable user and the streamer never bothered to update it days after the fact. Even after being asked to update it multiple times. It stayed for days unupdated. Clearly the streamer was using it to farm money from their viewers. Insanely despicable for a leftist.
It was really fucking gross and that event is what made me stop viewing twitch creators entirely.
I'm really disappointed in the mods deleting my messages instead of contacting me directly. Extremely heavy handed towards the little guy against what I now realize is the big streamer.
Edit: I have thought about it some more, there's an apology video for what she said and that it's a joke, but was it a joke or is it passive aggressively couched the same way this streamer i mentioned in this post? I'm not in the loop for this and can't take anyones word for it.
Nazis also make "jokes" and whether theyre serious or not is never up to the person the joke is made to. If you're a big streamer, that kind of humor should never be acceptable considering the dynamics at hand. I think that behavior is massively irresponsible. There's no issue if we can agree on that instead of deflecting, but I have no obligation to believe someone who does those kind of actions.
Don't think the mega is the place for this convo (unfortunately its sorta straying into "current struggle session" territory) but fwiw it makes me a bit uncomfortable too.
I respect that, I apologize if this has become inappropriate, to be fair its mostly me making a ruckus. Additionally, it seems like no one wants to have that conversation.
I can definitely see that there are people who are highly invested in streamers or are aspiring streamers themselves not wanting to acknowledge the idea that the profit motive and parasocial relationships making the activity unethical.