Analyse Guy Debords idea of the society of the spectacle. Does the Essay

Analyse Guy Debords idea of the society of the spectacle. Does the concept seem relevant to you - Essay Example During World War II, Guy Debord left home and travelled throughout the country of France. He began schooling in Cannes, where his interest in film and vandalism was discovered. As a young man, Debord was an active opposer of the French war in Algeria. Moreover, he joined in mass movements in Paris against it. Guy Debord joined the letterist internationally. Debord was the head of the situationist international group, which influenced the Paris rebellion of 1968; commonly known as: â€Å"The Society of the spectacle." The society of the spectacle and experts from the group, the situationist began to form their own theory of the spectacle, which explained the nature of the capitalism historical decay. In Guy Debords terms, the spectacle was to be defined as an assemblage of social relationships transmitted through the imagery of class power, and as the period of capitalist development where all that once lived has to be represented by an image. It is my argument that both of Debord’s terms alienated masses and revolutionary collective are secretly dependent upon the atomized perspective of liberal individualism. Both terms abstract the individual from subtending cultural traditions and the over-arching social relations in which they are embedded. Thus, this article seeks to explore the logic of Debord’s influential theory, propounding its insights and exposing the deficiencies of its underlying theoretical foundations. In The Society of Spectacle, Debord talks about the concept of the Spectacle. He also writes of: degradation of human life, commodity fetishism, mass media, and the difference between religion and marketing. The society of the spectacle is an essential text and the main work of the situationist. The work of the political and cultural theory has been provocative from its publication. In communities dominated by contemporary situations of production, life is viewed as an immense accumulation of s pectacle. Everything directly lived is