The Meaning Behind The Society of a Spectacle

                              The Meaning Behind The Society of a Spectacle

By Chinwe A. Onuoha

              The Society as a Spectacle, according to Guy Debord is as follows:

“The spectacle is the flip slide of money. It, too, is an abstract general equivalent of all commodities. But whereas money has dominated society as the representation of universal equivalence –the exchangeability of different goods whose uses remain uncomparable –the spectacle is the modern complement of money; a representation of the commodity world as a while which serves as a general equivalent for what the entire society can be and can do. The spectacle is money one can only look at, because in it all use has already been exchanged for the totality of abstract representation. The spectacle is not just a servant of pseudo-use, it is already in itself a pseudo-use of life,” (Debord, 49).

In other words, Guy Debord is trying to say that the society as a spectacle holds the same value as money because of the influential power that it holds. Money is what keeps the economy moving, but Durbord makes it clear that it's the advertisements that aim towards attracting the people that exist within the economy. The advertisements that we see on television, magazines or billboards, for example, evoke a sense of privilege and esteem –attributes that most American don't have.

For example, in the fall 2014 campaign for Balmain, the young women in this advertisement look extremely stylish, wealthy and modern –which is what most women would like to be. When women look at this advertisement, they will feel compelled to buy the clothes because of the message that it evokes when you look at it. In Debords essay, The Society of the Spectacle, he said that “the spectacle is a permanent opium war designed to force people to equate goods with commodities and to equate satisfaction with a survival that expands according to its own laws, Consumable survival must constantly expand because it never ceases to include privation. If augmented survival never comes to a resolution, if there is no point where it might stop expanding, this is because it is itself stuck in the realm of privation. It may gild poverty, but it cannot transcend it," (Debord, 44).

When people look at advertisements and are captured by the message that it evokes (ie. wealth, power, etc…), people will feel the urge to buy those products in an effort to feel satisfied –despite what the consequences might be (poverty). For example, look at the iPhone 6 that just came out. Everyone is talking about it. All of the new features and its sleek designed has served as a central theme in everyone’s conversation. People have spent over one thousand dollars for the phone in an effort to live up to what having an iPhone 6 will suggest when other people look at it. This is what Debord was talking about in his essay when he said that “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, 42).

Now that the way people receive media continues to change, “convergence doesn't just involve commercially produced materials and services traveling along well-regulated and predictable circuits,” (Jenkins, 17).  Now “our lives, relationships, memories, fantasies, desires also flow across media channels,” (Jenkins, 17).  With that said, we will continue to see ourselves as “specs” of society, our world view will continue to be blinded by what’s new and current instead of what we actually like.