Society of the Spectacle

Society of the spectacle is the pop culture that was created through human’s obsession with mass media. Debord describes the spectacle to have a huge impact on all aspects of human life. He says that the media basically impacts people abstractly but not realistically. The content loses quality and so do the morals of the people who consume the content.

Debord claims that while the main purpose of media is to try to sell us things that media itself is a commodity that feeds us ideas that shapes our perceptions and behaviors. Simple things such as ads can influence how society views and accepts the word. For example, women being objectified in the media, gives society the notion that women must be submissive and are merely sexual objects.

“The fetishism of the commodity — the domination of society by ‘imperceptible as well as perceptible things’ — attains its ultimate fulfillment in the spectacle, where the perceptible world is replaced by a selection of images which is projected above it, yet which at the same time succeeds in making itself regarded as the perceptible par excellence.” (Debord, 36)

Society is so absorbed into media that we are controlled by ideas and images that we see that sort of brainwash us to do certain behaviors because we perceive it as being acceptable behavior. It’s like the new role model that decides how society should and should not act. What people don’t realize is that while those views can be accepted by many that media is often ran by only a couple of people in power that don’t necessarily usually relate to the audience.

Commodity itself is also a spectacle because it creates a consumer culture. Media constantly throws images glorifying money, cars, and clothes. It creates this lifestyle that many of us will be unable to attain. It gives us the false pretense that if we buy these products, we too could have these things, which is definitely not always the case.

“The economy’s triumph as an independent power at the same time spells its own doom, because the forces it has unleashed have eliminated the economic necessity that was the unchanging basis of earlier societies. Replacing that necessity with a necessity for boundless economic development can only mean replacing the satisfaction of primary human needs (now scarcely met) with an incessant fabrication of pseudo-needs, all of which ultimately come down to the single pseudo-need of maintaining the reign of the autonomous economy. But that economy loses all connection with authentic needs insofar as it emerges from the social unconscious that unknowingly depended on it. ‘Whatever is conscious wears out. What is unconscious remains unalterable. But once it is freed, does it not fall to ruin in its turn?’ (Freud).” (Debord, 51)

The society we live in is very excessive and strays away from just necessity. The famous movie Fight Club’s main character Tyler Durden actually reflects a lot on society and consumerism (which you can find here). While we may be consuming goods, in actuality, it’s the material possessions that are actually consuming us. We’re told to work hard so we could earn money to buy things that we essentially don’t need. We’re all turning into purchasing machines that lose ourselves in items. The movie suggests separating ourselves from this consumer culture so we could really be at touch with ourselves.

Also, we need to realize that the economy is nothing without the consumers. The consumers technically have the power to change the consumer culture but they first need to be more conscious of what they’re actually buying into first.