I'm currently reading "The Society of the Spectacle" by Guy Debord. First published in 1967 in France.
Rather than give a review on the book from my own perspective, I have listed a few of my favorite quotes that I enjoy from it instead.
You can find the book online for free here: http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/debord/
if anyone is interested.
"In a world that has really been turned upside down, the true is a moment of the false."
"The first stage of the economy’s domination of social life brought about an evident degradation of being into having — human fulfillment was no longer equated with what one was, but with what one possessed. The present stage, in which social life has become completely dominated by the accumulated productions of the economy, is bringing about a general shift from having to appearing — all “having” must now derive its immediate prestige and its ultimate purpose from appearances. At the same time all individual reality has become social, in the sense that it is shaped by social forces and is directly dependent on them. Individual reality is allowed to appear only insofar as it is not actually real."
"The root of the spectacle is that oldest of all social specializations, the specialization of power. The spectacle plays the specialized role of speaking in the name of all the other activities. It is hierarchical society’s ambassador to itself, delivering its official messages at a court where no one else is allowed to speak. The most modern aspect of the spectacle is thus also the most archaic."
Rather than give a review on the book from my own perspective, I have listed a few of my favorite quotes that I enjoy from it instead.
You can find the book online for free here: http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/debord/
if anyone is interested.
"In a world that has really been turned upside down, the true is a moment of the false."
"The first stage of the economy’s domination of social life brought about an evident degradation of being into having — human fulfillment was no longer equated with what one was, but with what one possessed. The present stage, in which social life has become completely dominated by the accumulated productions of the economy, is bringing about a general shift from having to appearing — all “having” must now derive its immediate prestige and its ultimate purpose from appearances. At the same time all individual reality has become social, in the sense that it is shaped by social forces and is directly dependent on them. Individual reality is allowed to appear only insofar as it is not actually real."
"The root of the spectacle is that oldest of all social specializations, the specialization of power. The spectacle plays the specialized role of speaking in the name of all the other activities. It is hierarchical society’s ambassador to itself, delivering its official messages at a court where no one else is allowed to speak. The most modern aspect of the spectacle is thus also the most archaic."
to the forum,
