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Debord differentiated between the concentrated, diffuse, and integrated modes of the spectacle:Ĭommunism and fascism were the primary examples of the concentrated spectacle, with totalitarian control of the economy and the media centralized in the hands of the State.

He saw the shaping of the narrative firsthand, and well knew the ability of the media to amplify or ignore as convenient.Īs the spectacle conquered the earth, it took on different forms. Long before the general public became disillusioned with the news, Debord was woke to the fact that ‘the free press’ was largely a myth. The owners of society were also the owners of the media, and the messaging reflected this power dynamic. Twentieth-century forms of media were one-way communications. Media developed symbiotically with capitalism, and together these twin forces changed the world. As a result, all societies began to judge themselves in almost purely economic terms, regardless of their ideological leanings. In Debord’s reading of history, “ the bourgeoisie is the only revolutionary class that has ever won and it is also the only class for which the development of the economy was both the cause and the consequence of its taking control of society.” The revolutions of the previous centuries were economic in nature, replacing kings with merchant princes.

And despite their pretensions, communist societies had the same goals as every modern nation - wealth, prosperity, innovation, and growth. Unsurprisingly, capitalism is the best system for the accumulation of capital. But as a real Marxist, he had already arrived at what would become the historical consensus - communism, as practiced, was merely an inferior cousin to its free market foes. The Soviet Union was very much a superpower, and Nixon had yet to go to China. It might seem strange for Debord to declare capitalism victorious at the height of the Cold War.

What Debord describes is really a combination of two things the total triumph of capitalism, and the rise of mass media. The spectacle is never outright defined or rather, the entire book is a series of definitions, each approaching from a different angle.

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