Spectacular Integration

What Guy Debord Saw Coming

In 1988, Guy Debord reminded readers that his book of 1967, The Society of the Spectacle, had described the 'essence' of the modem spectacle as the accession of the market economy to an 'irresponsible sovereignty', accompanied by 'the totality of new techniques of government'.

The question Debord posed in 1988, in Comments on the Society of the Spectacle, was: what point had the Spectacle reached that it had not reached previously? What were its present lines of advance?'

The fate of the mass media had been foreseen by media philosopher, Marshall McLuhan, the ‘Sage of Toronto’. Debord had previously described him as 'the spectacle's first apologist' and seemingly 'the most convinced imbecile of the century'. Debord, however, noted that McLuhan had changed his mind about the mass media and the global village when he ‘finally discovered' in 1976 that 'the pressure of the mass media leads to irrationality' and that it was becoming urgent to modify its use. That something would go awry in the 'global village' was what Debord would have expected:

'Villages, unlike towns, have always been ruled by conformism, isolation, petty surveillance, boredom and repetitive malicious gossip about the same families. Which is a precise enough description of the global spectacle's present vulgarity...'

In 1967, Debord had described the Spectacle as having taken two forms: the 'Diffuse Spectacle' of Western 'consumerism' and the 'Centralised Spectacle' of Stalinist Communism. In his 1992 preface to Society of the Spectacle noted that the conversion of the Russian bureaucracy ‘the current ideology of democracy - in other words, to the dictatorial freedom of the Market, as tempered by the recognition of the rights of Homo Spectator.’

Debord, referencing Marx on the Fetish of the Commodity, says

‘Society's owners indeed want above all to keep a certain “social relation between people”, but they must also maintain continual technological innovation; for… the services which safeguard domination. When an instrument has been perfected it must be used, and its use will reinforce the very conditions that favour this use. Thus it is that emergency procedures become standard procedures.’

The 'empty debate on the spectacle' is organised by the spectacle itself in an 'abundant diversity of media extravagances'. The constituencies of the Media see themselves as providing professional and impartial standards, and present themselves as facilitating the new wealth of mass communications, ‘whereby decisions already taken are presented for passive admiration.'

‘When the spectacle stops talking about something for three days, it is as if it did not exist. For it has then gone on to talk about something else, and it is that which henceforth, in short, exists. The practical consequences, as we see, are enormous. We believe we know that in Greece history and democracy entered the world at the same rime. We can prove that their disappearances have also been simultaneous. To this list of the triumphs of power we should, however, add one result which has proved negative: once the running of a state involves a permanent and massive shortage of historical knowledge, that state can no longer be led strategically.’

Today, decades later, the USA is led by someone who told his idiot rally-attendees that in the War of Independence, George Washington's Continental Army 'took over the airports'. Now back in power, Trump and his apprentices issue lies and threats every few hours. And therein lies the strategy, in so much as stupidity (or dementia) is no obstacle to having one. The trick is not to give the liberal media so much as three hours, let alone three days to talk about whatever insane ‘initiative’ is reeled out in the middle of every night. The ‘Media Strategy’ was actually laid out five years ago by Trump’s then chief attack dog, Steve Bannon:

‘The opposition party is the media. And the media can only — because they're dumb and they're lazy — focus on one thing at a time. All we have to do is flood the zone. Every day we hit them with three things. They'll bite on one, and we'll get all of our stuff done, bang, bang, bang. These guys will never — will never be able to recover. But we've got to start with muzzle velocity.’

Bannon has, or thinks he has, ‘historical knowledge’, which is evidently limited within a bizarre cyclical theory of history (Politico, 7 Feb, 2017). Though still Trump-addled he has now been sidelined by the tech gods/ techno-feudal lords, and has fallen out in Spectacular fashion with Elon Musk, who neither knows history or democracy.

Debord declared in 1988 that the Spectacle was entering a new phase which he designated the Integrated Spectacle, characterised by the combined effect of five principal features:

‘incessant technological renewal;

integration of state and economy;

generalised secrecy;

unanswerable lies;

an eternal present.'

Have we arrived yet?

[Continued Next Week]