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Musings Report 2023-8 2-18-23 The Peculiar Unreality of Spectacle
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For those who are new to the Musings reports: they're a glimpse into my notebook, the unfiltered swamp where I organize future themes, sort through the dozens of stories and links submitted by readers, refine my own research and start connecting dots which appear later in the blog or in my books. As always, I hope the Musings spark new appraisals and insights. Thank you for supporting the site and for inviting me into your circle of correspondents.
The Peculiar Unreality of Spectacle
Longtime correspondent Zeus Y. kindly submitted this thought-provoking article in January: Guy Debord’s Warning of "The Role of the Expert:" A Philosophical Perspective on the Rise of Fact-Checking.
I've been pondering its insights and themes and want to share some preliminary thoughts.
The article sheds light on the current phenomenon of fact-checking by referencing French philosopher Guy Debord's 1967 book, The Society of the Spectacle. (This is a PDF of the entire text.)
Here is how Debord described his 1967 book in his 1988 follow-up work, Comments on the Society of the Spectacle:
"In 1967, in a book entitled The Society of the Spectacle, I showed what the modern spectacle was already in essence: the autocratic reign of the market economy which had acceded to an irresponsible sovereignty, and the totality of new techniques of government which accompanied this reign."
Before going further, I should mention that this sentence is rather typical of modern (and post-modern) philosophy.
Debord is laying out a way to understand how society has become subsumed by economic forces, specifically neoliberal markets.
This arrangement manages the populace by turning everything into a spectacle which in Debord's view is not "real life," it's a representation that we passively accept without understanding how it transforms our identity and social relations from "being" to "having," i.e. consuming and owning stuff that is a representation of who we are and our role in society.
This representation is managed by technocratic expertise--the source of "fact-checking.".
What we refer to as propaganda, marketing and narrative are for Debord all aspects of spectacle.
Spectacle as a simulation or facsimile of "real life" speaks to a profound alienation: we passively watch spectacle and take that passive consumption as "real life" without understanding it's all managed to maintain the dominance of those benefitting from the neoliberal economic arrangement.
This echoes many related ideas (for example, "The Matrix" films), the post-modern view of simulacra being passed off as the authentic "real thing," and Marx's concept of alienation in which the worker has been disconnected (alienated) from the product/value of their labor.
The core idea here is that Spectacle is inauthentic, a simulacrum or facsimile of reality, a substitution of representation for substance, that creates a peculiarly unreality.
The entire appeal of social media can be seen as personalizing Spectacle, as we each gain audience and influence by making ourselves and our lives into unreal representations, i.e. spectacles.
Here are some illuminating excerpts:
Because spectacle replaces real life with a mere mediated representation of life that cannot be experienced directly, it provides a framework where mass deceptions and lies can consistently and convincingly appear as true.
It has recreated our society without community, and it has obstructed the ability to communicate in general. Such processes and their ramifications ultimately mean people cannot truly experience life for themselves: they have become spectators, bound to an impoverished state of unlife.
In The Society of the Spectacle, Debord explains that the economy subjugating society first presented itself as an “obvious degradation of being into having,” where human fulfilment was no longer attained through what one was, but instead only through what one had. As society’s capitulation to the economy accelerated, the decline from being into having shifted "from having into appearing."
With respect to knowledge, therefore, experts no longer have to be experts or have expertise, they only need to take on the appearance of expertise.
Debord: "All experts serve the state and the media and only in that way do they achieve their status. Every expert follows his master, for all former possibilities for independence have been gradually reduced to nil by present society’s mode of organisation. The most useful expert, of course, is the one who can lie."
Debord: "The vague feeling that there has been a rapid invasion which has forced people to lead their lives in an entirely different way is now widespread; but this is experienced rather like some inexplicable change in the climate, or in some other natural equilibrium, a change faced with which ignorance knows only that it has nothing to say."
This reminds me of a comment French writer Michel Houellebecq made in an interview: "I have the impression of being caught up in a network of complicated, minute, stupid rules, and I have the impression of being herded towards a uniform kind of happiness, toward a kind of happiness that doesn't really make me happy."
This strikes me as an apt description of "spectacle as faux reality."
I am not sure this reliance on spectacle to create a peculiar unreality is solely modern.
If we think of late Rome's extravagant spectacles--staged battles in the Coliseum, chariot races, etc.--they were representations of a Roman power that was no longer real.
In the real world, Rome's power flowed from its vast importation of wheat from North Africa, its lucrative trade with the Mideast and India, its silver mines in Spain and its well-trained and provisioned legions.
Once these decayed or collapsed, the spectacles in Rome were no longer manifestations of power, they were mere representations of a power that was rapidly dissolving in the world beyond Rome.
Those within the bubble of Rome had no grasp of the tenuous instability of the Empire beyond the city walls.
As a final thought, consider how AI is being presented as automated expertise. But isn't AI just a representation of authentic expertise that "serves the state and the media" in a new theater of Spectacle?
Highlights of the Blog
The Core of the Economy--The Middle Class--Is Crumbling 2/17/23
A World Without Finance 2/14/23
The New Normal: Death Spirals and Speculative Frenzies 2/12/23
Best Thing That Happened To Me This Week
A tough choice this week:
Witnessed a highly choreographed alien invasion of rectangular spacecraft:
End of a tough six weeks: I'm pretty easy to please....
Baked breadfruit: from the tree to the oven and thence to the plate.
From Left Field
NOTE TO NEW READERS: This list is not comprised of articles I agree with or that I judge to be correct or of the highest quality. It is representative of the content I find interesting as reflections of the current zeitgeist. The list is intended to be perused with an open, critical, occasionally amused mind.
Many links are behind paywalls. Most paywalled sites allow a few free articles per month if you register. It's the New Normal.
Newton, The Last Magician: The great man of science had more than a passing interest in alchemy. -- There's "magic" and "magik"....
Two Bears... And Nowhere Near Enough Cocaine -witty and informed commentary on the stock market...
What's the secret of innovation?
Senior Housing That Seniors Actually Like: "Granny flats" are popping up in backyards across the country, affording Americans a new housing option. Some communities are not happy about it.
My Chinese Generation Is Losing the Ability to Express Itself
The net worth of households and nonprofit organizations declined $0.4 trillion to $143.3 trillion.
The Torn Posters in the Paris Metro
"Let It Rot" — China’s youths have given up. This is a case where youths work hard to get befitting pay, yet in the end, are left in a state of nihilism (working without meaning).
"However desperate the situation and circumstances, do not despair. When there is everything to fear, be unafraid. When surrounded by dangers, fear none of them. When without resources, depeud on resourcefulness. When surprised, take the enemy itself by surprise." Sun Tzu
Thanks for reading--
charles |
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