The Society of the Spectacle

Guy Debord’s 1967 philosophy text, The Society of the Spectacle, analyzes the phenomena of alienation and argues that alienation’s root cause is located within the economic, political, and cultural spheres of modern society. While previous periods of capitalist development saw the hyper-exploitation of workers, the period of capitalism after WWII saw an improvement in labor conditions for greater numbers of workers in society. However, for Debord, this improvement in work conditions did not translate to the disappearance of alienated labor. Rather, alienation moved from the workplace to the marketplace and is now defined by the fact that the whole of an individual’s life is structured according to the needs of the production and accumulation of capital. This means that everyday life under capitalist society is organized and structured according to the temporal rhythms and cycles of production and consumption; a social order whose chief consequence is that people no longer find the time to live a life for themselves.

This alienation that pervades all of society means that nowhere do individuals find the time to live for themselves and develop their personal talents. Today, everything individuals do is done in the service of the production of commodities and accumulation of wealth. This all pervasive alienated condition, says Debord, is what defines our society as a society of the spectacle, whereby society continues to economically expand while individuals grow ever distant from the concrete reality of their role as workers at the service of market demands.

In place of identifying with one’s social position as an exploited worker and organizing to transform society in the name of universal freedom and equality, the society of the spectacle encourages identification with the images of upward mobility, celebrity, fame, reputation, positions of power or prestige, and so forth. Identifying with these positions, rather than one’s own fact of being a worker, says Debord, is the very definition of life within the society of the spectacle. In order to overcome the alienation that conditions all of humanity, it is necessary to find the means of reconnecting with the concrete fact of our social positions and relieve ourselves and others of the illusory promises made by the culture and economy of the capitalist mode of production.