Society of the Spectacle #1

@Exploring the Situationists is an ongoing series of Zoom sessions where I (Ken Knabb) comment on various situationist texts, followed by Q&A and discussion. The sessions are being recorded and posted on RUclips. From September 2023 to January 2024 we went through the "Situationist International Anthology: Revised and Expanded Edition" (10 sessions). After a short break, we have resumed with Guy Debord's "The Society of the Spectacle." We are are doing a close reading of my annotated translation of the book, and it will probably take us about 15 sessions to get through the book (after which we will view and discuss Debord's film of the same title).
Participation is free. If you're interested in joining the live sessions (which take place every other Sunday, 5:00-7:00pm Pacific Time) please contact me at knabb AT bopsecrets DOT org
In this first session (March 24, 2024) I gave a brief overview of the book and then we read and discussed the first few pages of Chapter 1.
The text of the book can also be found online at www.bopsecrets...

[@ZOGGYDOGGY]

Dead time is the socially necessary labour time crystalised in the commodification of wealth.
From the Marx's theses on Feuerbach:
VII
Feuerbach, consequently, does not see that the “religious sentiment” is itself a social product, and that the abstract individual whom he analyses belongs to a particular form of society.
VIII
All social life is essentially practical. All mysteries which lead theory to mysticism find their rational solution in human practice and in the comprehension of this practice.

[@ItsMe-xf4kv]

i'm surprised there wasn't more discussion on thesis eight! i always found it to be one of the most crucial, fascinating, & implicative theses. it's possible my interpretation takes some undue liberties, but i always felt that it referred not simply to illusory unities & divisions between people, but rather to a kind of relentless diffusion of things between the spheres of the real & the fictional, until a decisive & meaningful distinction can no longer be made between the two. this solidifies the spectacle as a seamless element of our reality & forces us to recognize & abide by it
for instance, actual events in our world are translated into news coverage, which spectacularly asserts itself as a common cultural referent for us to relate around & discuss, & then through this discussion we make it a true element of our actual, tangible lives
perhaps i'm just mistaking the content of this thesis for Baudrillard's later concept of "hyperreality" though ?

[@ZOGGYDOGGY]

8
"The spectacle cannot be abstractly contrasted to concrete social activity."
The concrete social activity is labour producing the commodity. The commodity is both quantitatively abstract i.e the perception of the average 'socially necessary labour time' it takes to produce the good or service, its 'exchange-value' and the qualitative thing itself, the use-value of the good or service. Granted, the use-value of a good or service is also based on the perception of its user. To the capitalist, the use-value is its sale for profit. To the consuming buyer, it is what the good or service can fulfil in terms of what the person needs.
"Each side of such a duality is itself divided. The spectacle that falsifies reality is nevertheless a real product of that reality, while lived reality is materially invaded by the contemplation of the spectacle and ends up absorbing it and aligning itself with it. Objective reality is present on both sides. Each of these seemingly fixed concepts has no other basis than its transformation into its opposite: reality emerges within the spectacle, and the spectacle is real. This reciprocal alienation is the essence and support of the existing society."
The workers sell their skills to capitalists for a price based on their exchange-value. These skills are employed (the use-value to the capitalists) to produce the commodified wealth of nations. As capital accumulates, it becomes an immense commodification of wealth and the perception of the dead time embodied in a surplus of junk becomes a spectacle of emptiness, alienation of the producer from power and an alienation based on competition in the marketplace of commodities. Status in the sense of the accumulation of soon to become yesterday's trash, heightens the emptiness of social relations.
ruclips.net/video/GuyTZJyo-FY/видео.html